MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY; 


A  BRIEF  AND  PLAIN  TREATISE 


ON    THE 


POPULATION  QUESTION. 


BY  ROBERT  DALE  OWEN.    /  * 




"The  principle  of  utility  is  the  foundation  of  the  present  work." 

Bentham  on  Morals  and  Legislation. 


SIXTH       EDITION. 

NEW- YORK: 

PUBLISHED  BY  WRIGHT  &  OWEN, 

359  Broome-StreeL 

1831. 


\*  The  frontispiece  which  accompanies  this  treatise,  represents  a  poor  mother 
abandoning  her  infant,  at  the  gate  of  the  Hotel  des  Enfans  trouves,  (Foundling 
Hospital)  at  Paris.  The  original  painting,  from  which  this  is  a  faithful  copy,  is 
by  Vigneron,  a  French  artist  of  celebrity  ;  it  was  purchased  at  the  price  of  one 
thousand  dollars  for  the  Galerie  Royale,  and  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
French  king. 

The  Hotel  des  Enfans  trouves,  than  which  a  more  humane  institution  was 
never  founded,  exhibits,  in  its  every  arrangement,  order,  economy,  and,  above 
all,  a  beautiful  tenderness  of  the  feelings  of  those  poor  creatures  who  are  thus 
compelled  to  avail  themselves,  for  their  offspring,  of  the  asylum  it  affords.  No 
obtrusive  observation  is  made,  no  unfeeling  question  asked  :  the  infant  charge  is 
received  in  silence,  and  either  trained  and  supported  until  maturity,  or,  if  cir- 
cumstances, at  any  subsequent  period,  enable  the  parents  to  claim  their  offspring, 
it  is  restored  to  their  care. 

There  is  surely  no  sect,  of  creed  so  frozen,  or  ritual  so  rigid,  that  it  can  sys- 
tematize away  the  common  feelings  of  humanity,  or  dry  up,  in  the  breasts  of 
some  gentler  spirits,  the  milk  of  human  kindness.  The  benevolent  founder  and 
indefatigable  supporter  of  this  noble  institution,  was  a  Jesuit !  Be  the  good  deeds 
of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  remembered,  long  after  the  intrigues  and  cruelties  of 
his  fellow  sectaries  are  forgotten  ! 

The  case  selected  is  one  of  mild,  of  modified,— I  had  almost  said,  of  favoured 
misfortune  :  an  extreme  case  were  too  revolting  for  representation.  But  even 
under  these  comparatively  happy  circumstances,  when  benevolence  extends  her 
Samaritan  care  to  the  destitute  and  the  forsaken,  who  that  regards  for  a  moment 
the  abandoned  helplessness  of  the  deserted  child,  and  the  mute  distress  of  the 
departing  mother,  but  will  join  in  the  exclamation,  "Alas!  that  it  should  ever 
have  been  born !" 


PREFACE. 


IT  may  be  proper  to  state,  in  few  words,  the  immediate  circumstances 
•which  induced  me,  at  the  present  time,  to  write  and  publish  this  treatise. 

Some  weeks  since,  a  gentleman  coming  from  England  brought  with 
him  two  pretty  specimens  of  English  typography.  One  represented  a 
triumphal  arch  with  a  statue  of  the  late  king,  and  was  made  up  of  17;000 
different  pieces  of  common  printing  type;  the  other,  an  altar  piece, 
having  the  Lord's  Prayer,  Creed,  and  Commandments,  printed  within 
it,  and  composed  of  about  13,000  separate  pieces.  The  gentleman  was 
requested  by  a  Brighton  printer  who  executed  them,  to  present  these,  as 
specimens  of  English  typography,  to  some  of  his  brethren  craftsmen  in 
America.  He  presented  them  to  me ;  I  admired  the  ingenuity  displayed 
in  the  performance ;  but  thought  they  ought  to  have  been  presented 
rather  to  some  printers'  society  than  to  an  individual.  I  therefore  ad- 
dressed them  to  our  Typographical  Society  in  New- York,  accompa- 
nied by  a  note  simply  requesting  the  society's  acceptance  of  them,  as 
specimens  of  the  art  in  England. 

I  thought  no  more  of  the  matter,  until  I  received,  the  other  day,  my 
specimens  back  again,  with  a  long  and  not  a  little  angry  letter,  signed  by 
three  of  the  members,  accusing  Robert  Dale  Owen  of  principles  subver- 
sive of  every  virtue  under  heaven,  and  calculated  to  lead  to  the  infraction 
<^of  every  commandment  in  the  decalogue :  and,  more  especially,  accusing 
him  of  having  given  his  sanction  to  a  work,  as  they  expressed  it,  "hold- 
ing out  inducements  and  facilities  for  the  prostitution  of  their  daughters, 
sisters,  and  wives." 

I  subsequently  learned,  from  one  of  the  society,  circumstances  which 
somewhat  extenuate  (albeit  nothing  can  excuse)  their  childish  incivility. 
A  gentleman  who  busied  himself  last  year  in  making  out  a  notable  re- 
ply to  the  "  Society  for  the  Protection  of  Industry,"  got  up,  at  a  late  Ty- 
pographical meeting,  and  read  to  the  Society  several  detached  extracts 
from  a  pamphlet  written  by  Richard  Carlile,  entitled  "Every  Woman's 
Book,"  which  extracts  he  pronounced  to  be  excessively  indecent ;  and 
asked  the  Society  whether  they  would  receive  any  thing  at  the  hands 
of  a  man  who  publicly  approved  a  book  of  a  tendency  so  dreadfully 
immoral ;  which,  he  averred,  I  had  done.  The  society  were  (or  affected 


IV  PREFACE, 

to  be)  much  shocked,  and  thereupon  chose  a  committee  to  return  to  me 
the  heretical  specimens,  which  committee  penned  the  letter  to  which  I 
have  alluded. 

Probably  some  members  of  the  society  really  did  believe  the  work  to  be 
of  pernicious  tendency.  Had  some  garbled  extracts  only  from  it  been 
read  to  me,  I  might  possibly  have  utterly  misconceived  its  tone  and  ten- 
dency, and  its  author's  motives.  But  he  must  be  blind  indeed,  who  can 
read  the  pamphlet  through,  and  then  (whether  he  approve  it  or  not) 
can  attribute  other  than  good  intentions  to  the  individual  who  was  bold 
enough  to  put  it  forth. 

As  to  the  book  itself,  I  was  requested,  two  years  since,  when  residing 
in  Indiana,  to  publish  it,  and  declined  doing  so.  My  chief  reasons  were, 
that  I  doubted  its  physiological  correctness ;  that  I  did  not  consider  its 
style  and  tone  in  good  taste  ;  but  chiefly  (as  I  expressed  it  in  the  New 
Harmony  Gazette)  because  I  feared  it  would  be  circulated  in  this  coun- 
try only  "  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  thoughtless,  and  to  gratify  the  cu- 
riosity of  the  licentious,  instead  of  falling,  as  it  ought,  into  the  hands  of 
the  philanthropist,  of  the  physiologist,  and  of  every  father  and  mother 
of  a  family."  The  circumstances  I  have  just  detailed  may  afford  psoo^ 
that  my  fears  regarding  the  hands  into  which  it  might  fall,  were  well 
founded. 

My  principles  thus  officiously  and  publicly  attacked,  I  have  felt  it  a 
duty  to  the  cause  of  reform  to  step  forward  and  vindicate  them ;  and 
this  the  rather,  because,  unless  I  give  my  own  sentiments,  I  shall  be  un- 
derstood as  unqualifiedly  endorsing  Richard  Carlile's.  Now,  no  one 
more  admires  than  I  do  the  courage  and  strength  of  mind  which  induced 
that  bold  advocate  of  heresy  to  broach  this  important  subject ;  and  to  him 
be  the  praise  accorded,  that  he  was  the  first  to  venture  it.  But  the  man- 
ner of  his  book  I  do  not  admire.  There  is  in  it  that  which  was  repul- 
sive (I  will  not  say  revolting)  to  my  feelings,  on  the  first  perusal ;  and 
though  I  afterwards  began  to  doubt  whether  that  first  impression  was  not 
attributable,  in  a  great  measure,  to  my  prejudices,  yet  I  cannot  doubt  that 
a  similar,  and  even  a  more  unfavourable  impression,  will  be  made  on  the 
minds  of  others,  and  thus  the  interests  of  truth  be  jeopardized.  Then 
again,  I  think  the  physiological  portion  of  his  pamphlet  somewhat  incor- 
rect as  to  the  facts,  and  therefore  calculated  to  mislead,  where  an  error 
might  be  of  fatal  consequence. 

It  may  seem  vanity  in  me  to  imagine,  that  this  treatise  is  free  from 
similar  objections  j  yet  I  have  taken  great  pains  to  render  it  so. 

R.  D.  O. 

P.  S.  (to  the  fourth  edition.)  Communications  from  intelligent  in- 
dividuals, on  whose  physiological  knowledge  I  place  reliance,  have  ena- 
bled and  induced  me  somewhat  to  modify  the  text3  and  alter  the  arrange- 
ment, of  the  sixth  chapter^ 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 


I  SIT  down  to  write  alittle  treatise,  which  will  subject  me 
to  abuse  from  the  self-righteous,  to  misrepresentation  from 
the  hypocritical,  and  to  reproach  even  from  the  honestly 
prejudiced.  Some  may  refuse  to  read  it ;  and  many 
more  will  misconceive  its  tendency.  I  would  have  de- 
layed its  publication,  had  the  choice  been  permitted  me, 
until  the  popular  mind  was  better  prepared  to  receive  it : 
but  the  enemies  of  reform  have  already  foisted  the  sub- 
ject, under  an  odious  form,  on  the  public ;  and  I  have 
no  choice  left.  If,  therefore,  I  prematurely  touch  the 
honest  prejudices  of  any,  let  them  bear  in  mind,  that 
the  occasion  is  not  of  my  seeking. 

The  subject  I  intend  to  discuss  is  strictly  a  physiologi- 
cal subject,  although  connected,  like  many  other  phy- 
siological subjects,  with  political  economy,  morals,  and 
social  science.  In  discussing  it,  I  must  speak  as  plainly 
as  physicians  and  physiologists  do.  What  I  mean,  I 
must  say.  Pseudo-civilized  man,  that  anomalous  crea- 
ture who  has  been  not  inaptly  defined  "an  animal  asham- 
ed of  his  own  body,"  may  take  it  ill  that  I  speak  simply: 
I  cannot  help  that. 

A  foreign  princess,  travelling  towards  Madrid  to  be- 
come queen  of  Spain,  passed  through  a  little  town  of  the 
peninsula,  famous  for  its  manufactory  of  gloves  and 
stockings.  The  magistrates  of  the  place,  eager  to  evince 
their  loyalty  towards  their  new  queen,  presented  her,  on 


6  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

her  arrival,  with  a  sample  of  those  commodities  for 
which  alone  their  town  was  remarkable.  The  major 
domo,  who  conducted  the  princess,  received  the  gloves 
very  graciously ;  but,  when  the  stockings  were  presented, 
he  flung  them  away  with  great  indignation,  and  severely 
reprimanded  the  magistrates  for  this  egregious  piece  of 
indecency.  "  Know,"  said  he,  "  that  a  queen  of  Spain 
has  no  legs."* 

I  never  could  sympathize  with  this  major  domo  deli- 
cacy ;  and  if  you  can,  my  reader,  you  had  better  throw 
this  pamphlet  aside  at  once. 

If  you  have  travelled  and  observed  much,  you  will  al- 
ready have  learnt  the  distinction  between  real  and  arti- 
ficial propriety.  If  you  have  been  in  Constantinople, 
you  probably  know,  that  when  the  grand  seignor's  wives 
are  ill,  the  physician  is  only  allowed  to  see  the  wrist, 
which  is  thrust  through  an  opening  in  the  side  of  the 
room,  because  it  is  improper  even  for  a  physician  to  look 
upon  another  man's  wife ;  and  it  is  thought  better  to 
sacrifice  health  than  propriety.! 

If  you  have  sojourned  among  the  inhabitants  of  Tur- 
comania,  you  know  that  they  consider  a  woman's  virtue 
sacrificed  for  ever,  if,  before  marriage,  she  be  seen  to  stop 
on  the  public  road  to  speak  to  her  lover :{  and  if  you  have 
read  Buckingham's  travels,  you  may  remember  a  very 
romantic  story,  in  which  a  young  Turcoman  lady,  hav- 
ing thus  forfeited  her  reputation,  is  left  for  dead  on  the 
road  by  her  brothers,  who  were  determined  their  sister 
should  not  survive  her  dishonour. 

Perhaps  you  may  have  travelled  in  Asia.  If  so,  you 
cannot  be  ignorant  how  grossly  indecorous  to  Asiatic  ears 

*  See  "Memoires  de  la  Cour  d'Espagne,"  by  Madame  d'Aunoy. 
t  See  Tournefort's  Travels  in  Turkey. 
t  See  Buckingham's  Travels  in  Asia. 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  7 

it  is,  to  enquire  of  a  husband  after  his  wife's  health ; 
and  probably  you  may  know,  that  men  have  lost  their 
lives  to  atone  for  such  an  impropriety.  You  know,  too, 
of  course,  that  in  Eastern  nations  it  is  indecent  for  a 
woman  to  uncover  her  face  ;  but  perhaps  you  may 
not  know,  unless  your  travels  have  extended  to  Abyssinia, 
that  there  the  indecency  consists  in  uncovering  the  feet.* 

In  Central  Africa,  you  may  have  seen  women  bathing 
in  public,  without  the  slightest  sense  of  impropriety ;  but 
you  were  doubtless  told,  that  men  could  not  be  permitted 
a  similar  liberty  ;  seeing  that  modesty  requires  they 
should  perform  their  ablutions  in  private. 

If  my  reader  has  seen  all  or  any  of  these  countries 
and  customs,  I  doubt  not  that  he  or  she  will  read  my 
little  book  understandingly,  and  interpret  it  in  the  purity 
which  springs  from  enlarged  and  enlightened  views  ;  or, 
indeed,  from  common  sense.  If  not — if  you  who  now 
peruse  these  lines  have  been  educated  at  home,  and  have 
never  passed  the  boundary  line  of  your  own  nation — 
perhaps  of  your  own  village — if  you  have  not  learnt 
that  there  are  other  proprieties  besides  those  of  your 
country;  and  that,  after  all,  genuine  modesty  has  its 
legitimate  seat  in  the  heart  rather  than  in  the  outward 
form  or  sanctioned  custom — then,  I  fear  me,  you  may 
chance  to  cast  these  pages  from  you,  as  the  major  domo  did 
the  proffered  stockings,  unconscious  that  the  indelicacy 
lies,  not  in  my  simple  words,  or  the  Spanish  magistrates' 
honest  offering,  but  in  the  pruriently  sensitive  imagina- 
tion that  discovers  impropriety  in  either.  Yet,  even 
though  unexperienced,  if  you  be  still  young  and  pure- 
minded,  you  may  read  this  pamphlet  through,  and  I 
shall  fear  from  your  lips,  or  in  your  hearts,  no  odious 
misconstruction. 

*  See  Bruce's  Travels  in  Abyssinia. 


8  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

Young  men  and  women !  you  who,  if  ignorant,  are 
uncorrupted  also ;  you  in  whose  minds  honest  and  simple 
words  call  up  none  but  honest  and  simple  ideas ;  you 
who  think  no  evil;  you  who  are  still  believers  in  human 
virtue  and  human  happiness  ;  you  who,  like  our  fabled 
first  parents  in  their  paradise,  are  yet  unlearned  alike  in 
the  hypocritical  conventionalities  and  the  odious  vices 
of  pseudo-civilization  ;  you,  with  whom  love  is  stronger 
than  fear,  and  the  law  within  the  breast  more  powerful 
than  that  in  the  statute  book ;  you  whose  feelings  are 
still  unblunted,  and  whose  sympathies  still  warm  and 
generous;  you  who  belong  to  the  better  portion  of 
your  species,  and  who  have  formed  your  opinion  of  man- 
kind from  guileless  spirits  like  your  own — young  men 
and  women !  it  is  to  your  pure  feelings  I  would  fain 
speak  :  it  is  by  your  unsophisticated  hearts  I  would  fain 
have  my  treatise  and  my  motives  judged. 

Libertines  and  debauchees  !  this  book  is  not  for  you. 
You  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  subject  of  which  it 
treats.  Bringing  to  its  discussion,  as  you  do,  a  distrust 
or  contempt  of  the  human  race — accustomed  as  you 
are  to  confound  liberty  with  licence,  and  pleasure  with 
debauchery,  it  is  not  for  your  palled  feelings  and  brutal- 
ized senses  to  distinguish  moral  truth  in  its  purity  and 
simplicity.  I  never  discuss  this  subject  with  such  as  you. 
It  has  been  remarked,  that  nothing  is  so  suspicious  in  a 
woman,  as  vehement  pretensions  to  especial  chastity  :  it 
is  no  less  true,  that  the  most  obtrusive  and  sensitive 
stickler  for  the  etiquette  of  orthodox  morality  is  the  heart- 
less rake.  The  little  intercourse  I  have  had  with  men 
of  your  stamp,  warns  me  to  avoid  the  serious  discussion 
of  any  species  of  moral  heresy  with  you.  You  approach 
the  subject  in  a  tone  and  spirit  revolting  alike  to  good 
taste  and  good  feeling.  You  seem  to  presuppose — from 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY*  9 

your  own  experience,  perhaps— that  the  hearts  of  all 
men,  and  more  especially  of  all  women,  are  deceitful 
abovre  all  things  and  desperately  wicked;  that  violence 
and  vice  are  inherent  in  human  nature,  and  that 
nothing  but  laws  and  ceremonies  prevent  the  world 
from  becoming  a  vast  slaughter-house  or  a  universal 
brothel.  You  judge  your  own  sex  and  the  other  by  the 
specimens  you  have  met  with  in  wretched  haunts  of 
mercenary  profligacy ;  and,  with  such  a  standard  in 
your  minds,  I  marvel  not  that  you  remain  incorrigible 
unbelievers  in  any  virtue,  but  that  which  is  forced,  on 
the  prudish  hot-bed  of  ceremonious  orthodoxy.  I  won- 
der not,  that  you  will  not  trust  the  natural  soil,  watered 
from  the  free  skies  and  warmed  by  the  life-bringing  sun. 
How  should  you?  you  have  never  seen  it  produce  but 
weeds  and  poisons.  Libertines  and  debauchees !  cast 
my  book  aside  !  You  will  find  in  it  nothing  to  gratify  a 
licentious  curiosity ;  and,  if  you  read  it,  you  will  pro- 
bably only  give  me  credit  for  motives  and  impulses  like 
your  own. 

And  you,  prudes  and  hypocrites !  you  who  strain  at  a 
gnat  and  swallow  a  camel ;  you  whom  Jesus  likened  to 
whited  sepulchres,  which  without  indeed  are  beautiful, 
but  within  are  full  of  all  uncleanness  ;  you  who  affect  to 
blush  if  the  ancle  is  incidentally  mentioned  in  conver- 
sation, or  displayed  in  crossing  a  style,  but  will  read  in- 
decencies enough,  without  scruple,  in  your  closets;  you 
who,  at  dinner,  ask  to  be  helped  to  the  bosom  of  a  duck, 
lest,  by  mention  of  the  word  breast,  you  call  up  improper 
associations  ;  you  who  have  nothing  but  a  head  and  feet 
and  fingers  ;  you  who  look  demure  by  daylight,  and 
make  appointments  only  in  the  dark — you,  prudes  and 
hypocrites !  I  do  not  address.  Even  if  honest  in  your 
prudery,  your  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  are  too  artificial 


10  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

and  confused  to  profit  by  the  present  discussion  ;  if  dis 
honest,  I  desire  to  have  no  communication  with  you. 

Reader  !  if  you  belong  to  the  class  of  prudes  or  of  li- 
bertines, I  pray  you,  follow  my  argument  no  farther. 
Stop  here,  and  believe  that  my  heresies  will  not  suit  you. 
As  a  prude,  you  would  find  them  too  honest ;  as  a  liber- 
tine, too  temperate.  In  the  former  case,  you  might  call 
me  a  very  shocking  person  ;  in  the  latter,  a  quiz  or  a  bore. 

But  if  you  be  honest,  upright,  pure-minded ;  if  you  be 
unconscious  of  unworthy  motive  or  selfish  passion  ;  if 
truth  be  your  ambition,  and  the  welfare  of  our  race  your 
object — then  approach  with  me  a  subject  the  most  im- 
portant to  man's  well-being  ;  and  approach  it,  as  I  do,  ia 
a  spirit  of  dispassionate,  disinterested,  free  enquiry.  Ap- 
proach it,  resolving  to  prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good.  The  discussion  is  one  to  which  it  is 
every  man's  and  every  woman's  duty,  (and  ought  to  be 
every  one's  business ,)  to  attend.  The  welfare  of  the 
present  generation,  arid — yet  far  more — of  the  next,  re- 
quires it.  Common  sense  sanctions  it.  And  the  nation- 
al motto  of  my  former  country,  "  Honi  soit  qui  mal  y 
pense,"*  may  explain  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  undertaken3 
and  in  which  it  ought  to  be  received. 

Reader  !  it  ought  to  concern  you  nothing  who  or  what 
I  am,  who  now  address  you.  Truth  is  truth,  if  it  fall 
from  Satan's  lips  ;  and  error  ought  to  be  rejected,  though 
preached  by  an  angel  from  heaven.  Even  as  an  anony- 

*  One  of  the  English  kings,  Edward  III.,  in  the  year  1344,  picked  up 
from  the  floor  of  a  ball-room,  an  embroidered  garter  belonging  to  a  lady 
of  rank.  In  returning  it  to  her,  he  checked  the  rising  smile  of  his  cour- 
tiers with  the  words,  "  Honi  soit  qui  mal  y  pense  !"  or,  paraphrased  in 
English,  "  Shame  on  him  who  invidiously  interprets  it !"  The  senti- 
ment was  so  greatly  approved,  that  it  has  become  the  motto  of  the  English 
national  arms.  It  is  one  which  might  be  not  inaptly  nor  unfrequently 
applied  in  rebuking  the  mawkish,  skin-deep,  cind  intolerant  morality  of 
this  hypocritical  and  profligate  age, 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  11 

moiis  work,  therefore,  this  treatise  ought  to  obtain  a  full 
and  candid  examination  from  you.  But,  that  you  may 
not  imagine  I  am  ashamed  of  honestly  discussing  a  sub- 
ject so  useful  and  important,  I  have  given  you  my  name 
on  the  title  page. 

Neither  is  it  any  concern  of  yours  what  my  character 
is,  or  has  been.  No  man  of  sense  or  modesty  unneces- 
sarily obtrudes  personalities  that  regard  himself  on  the 
public.  And,  most  assuredly,  it  is  neither  to  gratify  your 
curiosity  or  my  vanity,  if  I  now  do  violence  to  my  feel- 
ings, and  speak  a  few  words  touching  myself.  I  do  so, 
to  disarm,  if  I  can,  prejudice  of  her  sting  ;  and  thus  to 
obtain  the  ears,  even  of  the  prejudiced ;  and  also  to  ac- 
quaint my  readers,  that  they  are  conversing  on  such 
a  subject  as  this,  with  one,  whom  circumstance  and 
education  have  happily  preserved  from  habits  of  excess 
and  associations  of  profligacy. 

All  those  who  have  intimately  known  the  life  and  pri- 
vate habits  of  the  writer  of  this  little  treatise,  will  bear 
him  witness,  that  what  he  now  states  is  true,  to  the  let- 
ter. He  was  indebted  to  his  parents  for  habits  of  the 
strictest  temperance — some  would  call  it  abstemiousness 
—in  all  things.  He  never,  at  any  time,  habitually 
used  ardent  spirits,  wine,  or  strong  drink  of  any  kind : 
latterly,  he  has  not  even  used  animal  food.  He  never 
chanced  to  enter  a  brothel  in  his  life  ;  nor  to  associate, 
even  for  an  evening,  with  those  poor,  unhappy  victims, 
whom  the  brutal,  yet  tolerated  vices  of  man,  and  some- 
times their  own  unsuspicious  or  ungoverned  feelings,  be- 
tray to  misery  and  degradation.  He  never  sought  the  com- 
pany but  of  the  intellectual  and  self-respecting  of  the  other 
sex,  and  has  no  associations  connected  with  the  name  of  wo- 
man, but  those  of  esteem  and  respectful  affection.  To  this 
day,  he  is  even  girlishly  sensitive  to  the  coarse  and  ribald 


12  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

jests  in  which  young  men  think  it  witty  to  indulge  at 
the  expense  of  a  sex  they  cannot  appreciate.  The  con- 
fidence with  which  women  may  have  honoured  him,  he 
has  never  selfishly  abused  ;  and,  at  this  moment,  he  has 
not  a  single  wrong  with  which  to  reproach  himself  to- 
wards a  sex,  which  he  considers  the  equal  of  man  in  all 
essentials  of  character,  and  his  superior  in  generous  dis- 
interestedness and  moral  worth. 

I  check  my  pen.  I  have  said  enough,  perhaps,  to 
awaken  the  confidence  of  those  whose  confidence  I  value; 
and  enough,  assuredly,  to  excite  the  ridicule,  or  the  sneer, 
of  him  who  walks  through  life  wrapped  up  in  the  cloak 
of  conformity,  and  laughs,  among  his  private  boon  com- 
panions, at  the  scruples  of  every  novice,  who  will  not.  like 
himself,  regard  debauchery  and  seduction  (in  secret)  as 
manly  and  spirited  amusements. 

And  now,  reader !  if  I  have  succeeded  in  awakening 
your  attention  and  enlisting  in  this  enquiry  your  reason 
and  your  better  feelings,  approach  with  me  a  subject  the 
most  interesting  and  important  to  you,  to  me,  to  all  our 
fellow-creatures.  Reader !  if  you  be  a  woman,  forget 
that  I  am  a  man :  if  a  man,  listen  to  me  as  you  would 
to  a  brother.  Let  us  converse,  not  as  men,  nor  as  wo- 
men, but  as  human  beings,  with  common  interests,  in- 
stincts, wants,  weaknesses.  Let  us  converse,  if  it  be  pos- 
sible, without  prejudice  and  without  passion.  Reader  ! 
whatever  be  your  sex,  sect,  rank,  or  party,  to  you  I  would 
now,  ere  I  commence,  address  the  poet's  exhortation — 
here,  far  more  strictly  applicable,  than  in  the  investiga- 
tion to  which  he  applied  it  :— 

"  Retire  !  the  world  shut  out :  thy  thoughts  call  home. 

Imagination's  airy  wing  repress. 

Lock  up  thy  senses ;  let  no  passion  stir : 

Wake  all  to  reason  ;  let  her  reign  alone." 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  13 


CHAPTER  H. 


STATEMENT  OP  THE  SUBJECT. 

Among  the  human  instincts  which  contribute  to  man's 
preservation  and  well-being,  the  instinct  of  reproduction 
holds  a  distinguished  rank.  It  peoples  the  earth ;  it  per- 
petuates the  species.  Controlled  by  reason  and  chasten- 
ed by  good  feeling,  it  gives  to  social  intercourse  much  of 
its  charm  and  zest.  Directed  by  selfishness,  or  govern- 
ed by  force,  it  is  prolific  of  misery  and  degradation. 
Whether  wisely  or  unwisely  directed,  its  influence  is  that 
of  a  master  principle,  that  colours,  brightly  or  darkly, 
much  of  the  destiny  of  man. 

It  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  low  and  selfish  pro- 
pensity ;  and  the  Shakers  call  it  a  "  carnal  and  sensual 
passion."*  I  see  nothing  in  the  instinct  itself  that  merits 
such  epithets.  Like  other  instincts,  it  may  assume  a 
selfish,  mercenary,  or  brutal  character.  But,  in  itself,  it 
appears  to  me  the  most  social  and  least  selfish  of  all  our 
instincts.  It  fits  us  to  give,  even  while  receiving,  plea- 
sure ;  and,  among  cultivated  beings,  the  former  power  is 
ever  more  highly  valued  than  the  latter.  Not  one  of 
our  instincts,  perhaps,  affords  larger  scope  for  the  exer- 
cise of  disinterestedness,  or  fitter  play  for  the  best  moral 

*  See  "  A  brief  exposition  of  the  principles  of  the  United  Society  call- 
ed Shakers,"  published  by  Calvin  Green  and  Seth  Y.  Wells,  1830. 

2 


14  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

feelings  of  our  race.  Not  one  gives  birth  to  relations 
more  gentle,  more  humanizing  and  endearing  ;  not  one 
lies  more  immediately  at  the  root  of  the  kindliest  chari- 
ties and  most  generous  impulses  that  honour  and  bless 
human  nature.  Its  very  power,  indeed,  gives  fatal  force 
to  its  aberrations ;  even  as  the  waters  of  the  calmest 
river,  when  dammed  up  or  forced  from  their  bed,  flood 
and  ruin  the  country :  but  the  gentle  flow  and  fertilizing 
influence  of  the  stream  are  the  fit  emblems  of  the  in- 
stinct, when  suffered,  undisturbed  by  force  or  passion,  to 
follow  its  own  quiet  channel. 

That  such  an  instinct  should  be  thought  and  spoken 
of  as  a  low,  selfish  propensity,  and,  as  such,  that  the 
discussion  of  its  nature  and  consequences  should  be  al- 
most interdicted  in  what  is  called  decent  society,  is  to  me 
a  proof  of  the  profligacy  of  the  age,  and  the  impurity  of 
the  pseudo-civilized  mind.  I  imagine  that  if  all  men 
and  women  were  gluttons  and  drunkards,  they  would, 
in  like  manner,  be  ashamed  to  speak  of  diet  or  of  tem- 
perance. 

Were  I  an  optimist,  and,  as  such,  had  I  accustomed 
myself  to  judge  and  to  admire  the  arrangements  of  na- 
ture, I  should  be  inclined  to  put  forward,  as  one  of  the 
most  admirable,  the  arrangement  according  to  which 
the  temperate  fulfilling  of  the  dictates  of  this,  as  well  as 
of  almost  all  other  instincts,  confers  pleasure.  The  de- 
sire of  offspring  would  probably  induce  us  to  perpetuate 
the  species,  though  no  gratification  were  connected  with 
the  act.  In  the  language  of  the  optimist,  then,  "  plea- 
sure is  gratuitously  superadded."  But,  instead  of  paus- 
ing to  admire  arrangements  and  intentions,  the  great 
whole  of  which  human  reason  seems  little  fitted  to  ap- 
preciate or  comprehend,  I  content  myself  with  remark- 
ing, that  this  very  circumstance  (in  itself  surely  a  fortu- 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  15 

nate  one,  inasmuch  as  it  adds  another  to  the  sources  of 
human  happiness)  has  often  been  the  cause  of  misery ; 
and,  from  a  blessing,  has  been  perverted  into  a  curse. 
Enjoyment  has  led  to  excess,  and  sometimes  to  tyranny 
and  barbarous  Injustice. 

Were  the  reproductive  instinct  disconnected  from  plea- 
sure of  any  kind,  it  would  neither  afford  enjoyment  nor 
admit  of  abuse.  As  it  is,  the  instinct  is  susceptible  of 
either;  just  as  wisdom  or  ignorance  governs  human 
laws,  habits,  and  customs.  It  behooves  us,  therefore,  to 
be  especially  careful  in  its  regulation ;  else  what  is  a 
great  good  may  become  for  us  a  great  evil. 

This  instinct,  then,  may  be  regarded  in  a  two-fold 
light ;  first,  as  giving  the  power  of  reproduction :  second- 
ly^ as  affording  pleasure. 

And  here,  before  I  proceed,  let  me  recall  to  the  reader's 
mind,  that  it  is  the  province  of  rational  beings  to  bear 
UTILITY  strictly  in  view.  Reason  recognizes  as  little 
the  romantic  and  unearthly  reveries  of  Stoicism,  as  she 
does  the  doctrines  of  health-destroying  and  mind-debas- 
ing debauchery.  She  reprobates  equally  a  contemning 
and  an  abusing  of  pleasure.  She  bids  us  avoid  asceti- 
cism on  the  one  hand,  and  excess  on  the  other.  In  all 
our  enquiries,  then,  let  reason  guide  us,  and  let  UTILITY 
be  our  polar  star. 

I  have  often  had  long  arguments  with  my  friends,  the 
Shakers,*  touching  the  two-fold  light  in  which  the  re- 
productive instinct  may  be  regarded.  They  commonly 
stand  out  stoutly  against  the  propriety  of  considering  it 
except  simply  as  a  means  of  perpetuating  the  species ; 

*  I  call  them  my  friends,  because,  however  little  I  am  disposed  to  ac- 
cede to  all  their  principles,  I  have  met,  from  among  their  body,  a  greater 
proportion  of  individuals  who  have  taken  with  them  my  friendship  and 
sympathy,  than  perhaps  from  among  any  other  sect  or  class  of  men. 


16  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY* 

and,  apart  from  that,  they  deny  that  it  may  be  regarded 
as  a  legitimate  source  of  enjoyment.  In  this  I  totally  dis- 
sent from  them.  It  is  a  much  more  noble,  because  less 
purely  selfish,  instinct,  than  hunger  or  thirst.  It  is  an 
instinct  that  entwines  itself  around  the  warmest  feelings 
and  best  affections  of  the  heart ;  and,  though  it  differ 
from  hunger  and  thirst  in  this,  that  it  may  remain  un- 
gratified  without  causing  death,  I  have  yet  to  learn,  that 
because  it  is  possible,  it  is  therefore  also  desirable,  to 
mortify  and  repress  it.  I  admit,  to  the  Shakers,  that  in 
the  world,  profligate  and  hypocritical  as  we  see  it,  this  in- 
stinct is  the  source  of  infinite  misery;  perhaps  even,  on 
the  whole,  of  a  balance  of  unhappiness :  and  I  always 
freely  admit  to  them,  that  if  I  had  to  choose  between  the 
life  of  the  profligate  man  of  the  world  and  that  of  the 
ascetic  Shaker,  I  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  prefer 
the  latter.  But,  for  admitting  that  the  most  social  and 
kindly  of  human  instincts  is  sensual  and  degrading  in 
itself,  I  cannot.  I  think  its  influence  moral,  humanizing, 
polishing,  beneficent ;  and  that  the  social  education  of 
no  man  or  woman  is  fully  completed  without  it.  Its 
mortification  (though  far  less  injurious  than  its  excess) 
is  yet  very  mischievous.  If  it  do  not  give  birth  to  pee- 
vishness, or  melancholy,  or  incipient  disease,  or  unnatu- 
ral practices,  at  least  it  almost  always  freezes  and  stif- 
fens the  character,  by  checking  the  flow  of  its  kindliest 
emotions  ;  and  not  unfrequently  gives  to  it  a  solitary,  anti- 
social, selfish  stamp. 

I  deny  the  position  of  the  Shaker,  then,  that  the  in- 
stinct is  justifiable  (if,  indeed,  it  be  at  all)  only  as  neces- 
sary to  the  reproduction  of  the  species.  It  is  justifiable, 
in  my  view,  just  in  as  far  as  it  makes  man  a  happier  and 
a  better  being.  It  is  justifiable,  both  as  a  source  of  tern- 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  17 

perate  enjoyment,  and  as  a  means  by  which  the  sexes 
can  mutually  polish  and  improve  each  other. 

If  a  Shaker  has  read  my  little  book  thus  far,  and  can- 
not reconcile  his  mind  to  this  idea,  he  may  as  well  shut 
it  at  once.  I  found  all  my  arguments  on  the  position, 
that  the  pleasure  derived  from  this  instinct,  independent 
of  and  totally  distinct  from,  its  ultimate  object,  the  repro- 
duction of  our  race,  is  good,  proper,  worth  securing  and 
enjoying.  I  maintain,  that  its  temperate  enjoyment  is 
a  blessing,  both  in  itself  and  in  its  influence  on  human 
character. 

Upon  this  distinction  of  the  instinct  into  its  two-fold 
character,  hinges  the  chief  point  in  the  present  discus- 
sion. It  sometimes  happens,  nay,  it  happens  every  day 
and  hour,  that  mankind  obey  its  impulses,  not  from  any 
calculation  of  consequences,  but  simply  from  animal  im- 
pulse. Thus  many  children  that  are  brought  into  the 
world  owe  their  existence,  not  to  deliberate  conviction  in 
their  parents  that  their  birth  was  really  desirable,  but 
simply  to  an  unreasoning  instinct,  which  men,  in  the 
mass,  have  not  learnt  either  to  resist  or  control. 

It  is  a  serious  question — and  surely  an  exceedingly 
proper  and  important  one — whether  man  can  obtain, 
and  whether  he  is  benefited  by  obtaining,  control  over 
this  instinct.  Is  IT  DESIRABLE,  THAT\  IT  SHOULD 

NEVER  BE  GRATIFIED  WITHOUT  AN  INCREASE  TO 
POPULATION?  OR,  IS  IT  DESIRABLE,  THAT,  IN 
GRATIFYING  IT,  MAN  SHALL  BE  ABLE  TO  SAY 
WHETHER  OFFSPRING  SHALL  BE  THE  RESULT  OR 
NOT? 

To  answer  the  questions  satisfactorily,  it  would  be  ne- 
cessary to  substantiate,  that  such  control  may  be  obtain- 
ed without  the  slightest  injury  to  the  physical  health,  or 
violence  to  the  moral  feelings  ;  and  also,  that  it  should 

2* 


18  MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY. 

be  obtained  without  any  real  sacrifice  of  enjoyment ;  or, 
if  that  cannot  be,  with  as  little  as  possible. 

Thus  have  I  plainly  stated  the  subject.  It  resolves  it- 
self, as  my  readers  may  observe,  into  two  distinct  heads : 
first,  the  desirability  of  such  control ;  and,  secondly,  its 
possibility. 

In  discussing  its  desirability,  I  enter  a  wide  field,  a 
field  often  traversed  by  political  economists,  by  moralists, 
and  by  philosophers,  though  generally,  it  will  be  con- 
fessed, to  little  purpose.  This  maybe,  in  a  great  measure, 
attributed  rather  to  their  fear  than  their  ignorance.  The 
world  would  not  permit  them  to  say  what  they  knew.  I 
intend  that  my  readers  shall  know  all  that  I  know  on 
the  subject;  for  I  have  long  since  ceased  to  ask  the 
world's  leave  to  say  what  I  think,  and  what  I  believe  to 
be  useful  to  the  public. 

I  propose  to  begin  by  considering  the  question  in  the 
abstract,  and  then  to  examine  it  in  its  political  and  social 
bearings. 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  19 


CHAPTER  IE. 


THE  QUESTION  EXAMINED  IN  THE  ABSTRACT. 
* 

Is  it  in  itself  desirable,  that  man  should  obtain  control 
over  the  instinct  of  reproduction,  so  as  to  determine  when 
its  gratification  shall  produce  offspring,  and  when  it  shall 
not? 

But  that  common  sense  is  so  scarce  an  article,  and  that 
the  various  superstitions  of  the  nursery  pervade  the 
opinions  and  cramp  the  enquiries,  even  of  after  life — but 
for  this,  the  very  statement  of  the  question  might  suffice 
to  obtain  for  it  the  assent  of  every  rational  being.  No- 
thing so  elevates  man  above  the  brute  creation,  as  the 
power  he  obtains  over  his  instincts.  The  lower  animal 
follows  them  blindly,  unreflectingly.  The  serpent  gorges 
himself;  the  bull  fights,  even  to  death,  with  his  rival  of 
the  pasture;  the  dog  makes  deadly  war  for  a  bone. 
They  know  nothing  of  progressive  improvement.  The 
elephant  or  the  beaver  of  the  nineteenth  century,  are  just 
as  wise,  and  no  wiser,  than  the  elephant  or  the  beaver 
of  two  thousand  years  ago.  Man  alone  has  the  power  to 
improve,  cultivate,  elevate  his  nature,  from  generation  to 
generation.  He  alone  can  control  his  instincts  by  re- 
flection of  consequences,  and  regulate  his  passions  by 
the  precepts  of  wisdom. 

It  is  strange,  that  even  at  this  period  of  the  world,  we 


20  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

should  have  to  remind  each  other,  that  all  knowledge  of 
facts  is  useful ;  or,  at  the  least,  cannot  be  injurious.  The 
knowledge  of  some  facts  may  be  unimportant;  the 
knowledge  of  none  is  mischievous.  A  human  being  is  a 
puppet — a  slave,  if  his  ignorance  is  to  be  the  safeguard  of 
his  virtue.  Nor  shall  we  know  where  to  stop,  if  we  fol- 
low up  this  principle.  Shall  we  give  our  sons  lessons  in 
mechanics  ?  but  they  may  thereby  learn  to  pick  locks. 
Shall  we  teach  them  to  read?  but  they  may  thus  obtain 
access  to  falsehood  and  folly.  Shall  we  instruct  them  in 
writing  ?  but  they  may  become  forgers. 

Such,  in  effect,  .was  the  reasoning  of  men  in  the  dark 
ages.  When  Walter  Scott  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Lord 
Douglas,  on  the  discovery  of  Marmion's  treachery,  the 
following  exclamation,  it  is  strictly  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  and  prevailing  opinions  of  the  times  : 

"  A  letter  forged !  Saint  Jude  to  speed  ! 
Did  ever  knight  so  foul  a  deed ! 
At  first  in  heart  it  liked  me  ill, 
When  the  king  praised  his  clerkly  skill. 
Thanks  to  Saint  Bothan,  son  of  mine, 
Save  Gawain,  ne'er  could  pen  a  line : 
So  swore  I,  and  so  swear  I  still, 
Let  my  boy  bishop  fret  his  fill." 

But  the  days  are  gone  by  when  ignorance  may  be 
the  safeguard  of  virtue.  The  only  rock-foundation  for 
virtue  is  knowledge.  There  is  no  fact,  in  physics  or  in 
morals,  that  ought  to  be  concealed  from  the  enquiring 
mind.  Let  that  parent  who  thinks  to  secure  his  sons' 
honesty  or  his  daughters'  innocence  by  keeping  back 
from  them  facts — let  that  parent  know,  that  he  is  build- 
ing up  their  morality  on  a  sandy  foundation.  The 
rains  and  the  floods  of  the  world's  influence  shall  beat 
upon  that  virtue,  and  great  shall  be  the  fall  thereof. 

If  man,  then,  can  obtain  control  over  this  most  in> 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  21 

portant  of  instincts,  it  is,  in  principle,  right  that  he 
should  know  it.  If  men,  after  obtaining  such  know- 
ledge, think  fit  not  to  use  it ;  if  they  deem  it  nobler  and 
more  virtuous,  to  follow  each  animal  impulse,  like  the 
beasts  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the  air,  without  a 
thought  of  its  consequences,  or  an  enquiry  into  its  nature 
— then  let  them  do  so.  The  knowledge  that  they  have 
the  power  to  act  more  like  rational  beings,  will  not  in- 
jure, if  it  fail  to  benefit  them.  They  are  at  perfect  liber* 
ty  to  set  it  aside,  to  neglect  it,  to  forget  it,  if  they  can. 
Only  let  them  show  common  sense  enough  to  permit 
that  others,  who  are  more  slow  to  incur  sacred  responsi- 
bilities, and  more  willing  to  give  reason  the  control  of  in- 
stinct, should  obtain  the  requisite  knowledge,  and  follow 
out  their  prudent  resolutions. 

If  this  little  book  were  in  the  hands  of  every  adult  in 
the  United  States,  not  one  need  profit  by  it,  unless  he 
sees  fit.  Nor  will  any  man  admit  that  he  can  possibly 
be  injured  by  it.  Oh  no.  His  virtue  can  bear  any 
quantity  of  light.  But  then,  his  neighbour's,  or  his 
son's,  or  his  daughter's  ! 

This  would  lead  me  to  discuss  the  social  bearings  of 
the  question.  But,  as  conceiving  it  more  in  order,  I 
shall  first  speak  of  it  in  connexion  with  political  economy. 


22  '       MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  QUESTION  IN    ITS    CONNEXION    WITH  POLITICAL 

ECONOMY. 

The  population  question,  as  it  is  called,  has  of  late 
years  occupied  much  attention,  especially  in  Great  Bri- 
tain. It  was  first  prominently  brought  forward  and  dis- 
cussed, through  two  large  volumes,  by  Malthus,  an 
English  clergyman.  Godwin,  Ricardo,  Thompson, 
Place,  Mill,  and  other  celebrated  cotemporary  writers, 
have  all  discussed  it,  with  more  or  less  reserve,  and  at 
greater  or  less  length. 

Malthus'  work  has  become  the  text  book  of  a  large 
politico-economist  party  in  England.  His  doctrine  is, 
that  "  population,  unrestrained,  will  advance  beyond 
the  means  of  subsistence"  He  asserts,  that  in  most 
countries  population  at  this  moment  presses  against  the 
means  of  subsistence ;  and  that,  in  all  countries,  it  has  a 
tendency  so  to  do.  He  recommends,  as  a  preventive  of 
the  growing  evil,  celibacy  till  a  late  age,  say  thirty  years; 
and  he  asserts,  that  unless  this  "  moral  restraint"  is  ex- 
erted, vice,  poverty  and  misery,  will  and  must  become 
the  checks  to  population.  His  book,  in  my  opinion,  has 
done  infinite  mischief.  I  have  heard  his  disciples  open- 
ly declare,  that  they  considered  the  crimes  and  wretch- 
edness of  society  to  be  necessary — to  be  the  express  or- 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY*  23 

dainings  of  Providence,  intended  to  prevent  the  earth 
from  being  over-peopled.  I  have  heard  it  argued  by 
men  of  rank,  wealth  and  influence,  that  the  distinctions 
of  rich  and  poor,  and  even  of  morality  and  immorality, 
of  luxury  and  want,  will  and  must  exist  to  the  end  of 
the  world ;  that  he  who  attempts  to  remove  them  rights 
against  God  and  nature  ;  and,  if  he  partially  succeed, 
will  but  afford  the  human  race  an  opportunity  to  increase, 
until  the  earth  shall  no  longer  suffice  to  contain  them, 
and  they  shall  be  compelled  to  prey  on  each  other.  It 
must  be  confessed,  that  this  is  a  comfortable  doctrine  for 
the  rich  idler :  it  is  a  healing  salve  to  the  luxurious  con- 
science ;  an  opiate  to  drown  the  still  small  voice  of  truth 
and  humanity,  which  calls  to  every  man  to  be  up  and  do 
his  part  towards  the  alleviation  of  the  human  suffering 
that  every  where  stares  him  in  the  face. 

It  is  vain  to  argue  with  these  defenders  of  the  evils 
that  be,  that  the  day  of  overstocking  is  afar  off.  They 
tell  you,  it  must  come  at  last ;  and  that  the  more  you  do 
to  remove  vice  and  misery — those  destroyers  of  popula- 
tion— the  sooner  it  will  come.  And  what  reply  can  one 
make  to  the  argument  in  the  abstract  ?  I  believe  it  to 
be  proved,  that  population,  unrestrained,*  will  double  itself 
on  an  average  every  twenty-five  to  fifty  years.  If  so,  it 
is  evident  to  a  demonstration,  that,  if  population  be  not 
restrained,  morally  or  immorally,  the  earth  will  at  last 
furnish  no  foothold  for  the  human  beings  that  will 
cover  it. 

Take  a  medium  calculation  as  to  the  natural  rate  of 

*  By  unrestrained,  Malthus  and  his  disciples  mean,  not  restricted  or 
destroyed  by  any  incidental  check  whatever,  moral  or  immoral,  pruden- 
tial or  violent.  Thus,  poverty,  war,  libertinism,  famine,  &c.  are  all 
powerful  checks  to  population.  In  this  sense,  and  not  simply  as  ap- 
plying to  preventative  moral  restraint,  have  I  employed  the  word  through- 
out this  chapter. 


24  MORAL   PHYSIOLOGY. 

increase,  and  say,  that  population,  unrestrained,  will 
double  itself  every  thirty-three  and  a  third  years.  That 
it  has  done  so,  (without  reckoning  the  increase  from  emi- 
gration,) in  many  parts  of  this  continent,  is  certain. 

Then,  if  we  suppose  the  present  numerous  checks  to 
population,  viz.  want,  war,  vice,  and  misery,  removed 
by  rational  reform,  and  if  we  assume  the  present  popu- 
lation of  the  world  at  one  thousand  millions,  we  shall 
find  the  rate  of  increase  as  follows : 

At  the  end  of  100  years,  there  will  be  8,000  millions. 

200 , 64,000 

300 512  000 

400 4,096,000 

500 32,768,000 

And  so  on,  multiplying  by  8  for  every  additional  hundred 
years.  So  that,  in  500  years,  there  would  be  more  than 
thirty  thousand  times  as  many  as  at  present :  and  in 
1000  years,  upwards  of  a  thousand  million  times  as 
many  human  beings  as  at  this  moment :  consequently, 
one  single  pair,  if  suffered  to  increase  without  check, 
would,  in  1000  years,  increase  to  more  than  double  the 
present  population  of  the  globe. 

It  appears  evident,  then,  to  a  demonstration,  that  popu- 
lation CANNOT  be  suffered  to  increase  unrestrained  for 
more  than  a  very  few  hundred  years.  We  are  thus  com- 
pelled to  admit  to  Malthus,  that,  sooner  or  later,  some 
restraint  or  other  to  population  must  be  employed  ;  and 
compelled  to  admit  to  his  aristocratic  disciples,  that  if  no 
other  better  restraint  than  vice  and  misery  can  be  found, 
then  vice  and  misery  must  be  ;  they  are  the  lot  of  man, 
from  generation  to  generation. 

Let  me  repeat  it :  it  is  no  question — never  can  be  a 
question — whether  there  shall  be  a  restraint  to  popula- 
tion or  not.  There  MUST  be ;  unless  indeed  we  find  the 
means  of  visiting  other  planets,  so  as  to  people  them.  In 


MORAL   PHYSIOLOGY*  25 

the  nature  of  things,  there  must  be  a  check,  of  some 
kind,  at  some  time.  The  only  question  is,  what  that 
check  shall  be — whether,  as  heretofore,  the  check  of 
war,  want,  profligacy,  misery  ;  or  a  "  moral  restraint/' 
sanctioned  by  reason  and  suggested  by  experience. 

Let  those,  then,  who  cry  out  against  this  little  treatise, 
be  told,  that  though  they  may  postpone  the  question,  no 
human  power  can  evade  it.  It  must  come  up.  Had 
the  friends  of  reform  been  left  to  choose  their  own  time, 
it  might,  perhaps  with  advantage,  have  been  postponed. 
And  it  is  an  imaginable  case,  that  prejudice  might  delay 
it  until  a  general  famine  or  a  universal  civil  war  became 
the  frightful  checks.  But  will  any  man  of  common 
sense  argue  the  propriety  of  suffering  such  a  crisis  to 
approach  ? 

Malthus  saw  this.  He  saw  that  some  check  must 
exist ;  and,  whatever  some  of  his  disciples  might  per- 
mit themselves  to  say,  he  did  not  choose  to  be  consi- 
dered the  apologist  of  vice  and  misery.  His  theory, 
indeed,  supplied  specious  arguments  to  those  who  as- 
serted, with  the  ingenious  author  of  the  Fable  of  the 
Bees,*  that  "  private  vices  are  public  benefits ;"  and  in 
consequence,  its  tendency  appears,  to  me  essentially  aris- 
tocratic and  demoralizing,  as  tending  to  produce  supine 
contentment  with  a  vicious  and  degrading  order  of  things. 
But  Malthus  himself  declares  the  only  proper  check  to 
be,  the  general  practice  of  celibacy  to  a  late  age.  He 
employs  all  his  eloquence  to  persuade  men  and  women 
that  they  ought  not  to  marry  till  they  are  twenty-eight 
or  thirty ;  and  that,  if  they  do,  they  are  contributing  to 
the  misery  of  the  world.t 

*  Mandeville. 

t  Some  wag,  adverting  to  the  fact,  that  Mr.  Malthus  himself  has  a 
large  family,  remarked,  "  that  the  reverend  gentleman  knew  better  how 
to  preach  than  to  practise." 

3 


»0  MORAL   PHYSIOLOGY. 

Now,  Mr.  Malthus  may  preach  for  ever  on  this  subject* 
Individuals  may  indeed  be  found,  who  will  look  to  distant 
consequences,  and  sacrifice  present  enjoyment ;  even  as 
individuals  are  found  to  become  and  remain  Shaking 
Quakers  :  but  to  believe  that  the  mass  of  mankind  will 
abjure,  through  the  ten  fairest  years  of  life,  the  nearest 
and  dearest  of  social  relations  ;  and  during  the  very  holi- 
day of  existence,  will  live  the  life  of  monks  and  nuns- 
all  to  avert  a  catastrophe  which  is  confessedly  some  hun- 
dreds of  years  distant — to  believe  this,  requires  a  faith 
which  no  accurate  observer  of  mankind  possesses. 

This  weak  point  the  aristocratic  expounders  of  Mal- 
thus' doctrines  were  not  slow  to  discover.  They  broadly 
asserted,  that  such  "  moral  restraint"  would  never  be 
generally  practised.  They  asked,  whether  a  young 
woman,  to  whom  a  comfortable  home  and  a  pleasant 
companion  were  offered,  would  refuse  to  accept  them,  on 
this  theory  of  population  ;  whether  a  young  man  who 
had  a  fair  (or  even  but  a  very  indifferent)  prospect  of 
maintaining  a  family,  would  doom  himself  to  celibacy 
lest  the  world  should  be  overpeopled.  And  they  put  it 
to  the  advocates  of  late  marriages,  whether,  in  one  sex 
at  least,  the  recommendation,  if  even  .nominally  folio  wed, 
would  not  almost  certainly  lead  to  vicious  excess  and  de- 
grading associations ;  thus  resolving  the  check  into  vice 
and  misery  at  last.  If  experience  answered  these  ques- 
tions in  the  negative,  was  it  not  clear,  (they  would  ex- 
ultingly  ask,)  that  vice  and  misery  are  the  natural  lot  of 
man  ;  and  that  it  is  quixotic,  if  not  impious,  to  plague 
ourselves  about  them,  or  to  attempt,  by  their  suppression, 
to  controvert  the  decrees  of  God  1 

It  was  very  easy  for  generous  feelings  to  reply  to  so 
heartless  an  argument.  It  was  easy  to  ask,  whether 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  Ai 

fcven  the  apparent  hopelessness  of  the  case  formed  any 
legitimate  apology  for  supine  indifference ;  or  whether, 
where  we  cannot  cure,  we  are  absolved  from  the  duty  of 
alleviating.  But  it  was  not  very  easy  fully  and  fairly  to 
meet  the  question.  It  was  idle  to  deny  that  preaching 
would  not  put  off  marriage  for  ten  years  :  and  if  no  other 
species  of  moral  restraint  than  ten  years  Shakerism  could 
be  proposed,  it  did  appear  evident  enough,  that  moral  re* 
straint  would  be  by  the  mass  neglected,  and  that  the  phy- 
sical checks  of  vice  and  misery  must  come  into  play  at 
last, 

I  pray  my  readers,  then,  distinctly  to  observe  how  the 
matter  stands.  Population,  unrestrained,  must  increase 
beyond  the  possibility  of  the  earth  and  its  produce  to  sup- 
port. At  present  it  is  restrained  by  vice  and  misery. 
The  only  remedy  which  the  orthodoxy  of  the  English 
clergyman  permits  him  to  propose,  is,  late  marriages. 
The  most  enlightened  observers  of  mankind  are  agreed, 
that  nothing  contributes  so  positively  and  immediately  to 
demoralize  a  nation,  as  when  its  youth  refrain,  until  a 
late  period,  from  forming  disinterested  connexions  with 
those  of  the  other  sex.  The  frightful  increase  of  pros- 
titutes, the  destruction  of  health,  the  rapid  spread  of  in- 
temperance, the  ruin  of  moral  feelings,  are,  to  the  mass, 
the  certain  consequences.  Individuals  there  are,  who 
escape  the  contagion  ;  individuals  whose  better  feelings 
revolt,  under  any  temptation,  from  the  mercenary  em- 
brace, or  the  Circean  cup  of  intoxication;  but  these  are 
exceptions  only.  The  mass  must  have  their  pleasures ; 
the  pleasures  of  intellectual  intercourse,  of  unbought  af- 
fection, and  of  good  taste  and  good  feeling,  if  they  can ; 
but  if  they  cannot,  then  such  pleasures  (alas  !  that  lan- 
guage should  be  perverted  to  entitle  them  to  the  name  !) 


28  MORAL  PHY8IOLOGT. 

as  the  sacrifice  of  money  and  the  ruin  of  body  and  mind 
can  purchase.* 

But  this  is  not  all.  Not  only  is  Malthus'  proposition 
fraught  with  immorality,  in  that  it  discountenances  to  a 
late  age  those  disinterested  sexual  connexions  which  can 
alone  save  youth  from  vice ;  but  it  is  impracticable. 
Men  and  women  will  scarcely  pause  to  calculate  the 
chances  they  have  of  affording  support  to  their  children 
ere  they  become  parents :  how,  then,  should  they  stop 
to  calculate  the  chances  of  the  world's  being  overpeopled? 
Malthus  may  say  what  he  pleases,  they  never  will  make 
any  such  calculation ;  and  it  is  folly  to  expect  they 
should. 

Let  us  observe,  then :  unless  some  less  ascetic  a?id 
more  practicable  species  of  "  moral  restraint'''1  be  in- 
troduced, vice  and  misery  will  ultimately  become  the 
inevitable  lot  of  man  upon  earth.  He  can  no  more 
escape  them,  than  he  can  the  light  of  the  sun,  or  the 
stroke  of  death. 

What  an  incitement,  this,  to  the  prosecution  of  our  en- 
quiry !  Here  is  a  principle  set  up,  which  is  all  but  an 
apology  for  the  aojathy  that  prevails  among  the  rich  and 
the  powerful — among  governors  and  legislators — in  re- 
gard to  human  improvement.  How  important,  how  es- 
sential for  the  interests  of  virtue,  that  it  should  be  re- 
futed !  How  beneficent  that  knowledge,  which  discloses 
to  us  some  moral,  practicable  check  to  population,  and 
relieves  us  from  the  despairing  conclusion,  that  the  irrevo- 
cable doom  of  man  is  misery,  without  remedy  and  without 
end  !  In  the  absence  of  such  knowledge,  truly  the  pros- 
pects of  the  world  were  dark  and  cheerless.  The  modern 

*  Lawrence,  the  ingenious  author  of  the  "  Empire  of  the  Nairs,'*1 
says  shrewdly  enough,  "  Wherever  the  women  are  prudes,  the  men,  wUi 
be  drunkards*" 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  29 

doctrine  of  population  has  weighed  like  a  spell  on  the 
exertions  of  benevolence,  and  chilled,  almost  to  inaction, 
even  the  warm  heart  of  charity.  Philanthropy  herself 
pauses,  when  she  begins  to  fear  that  all  her  exertions 
are  to  result  in  hopeless  disappointment.  And  yet — 
such  is  this  world — even  the  ablest  opponents  of  Malthus 
stop  short  when  they  come  to  the  question,  and  leave  an 
argument  unanswered,  which  a  dozen  pages  might  suffice 
for  ever  to  set  at  rest. 

Let  one  of  the  most  intelligent  of  these  opponents,  a 
man  of  splendid  and  sterling  talent — let  MILL,  the  cele- 
brated political  economist  and  talented  author  of  "  British 
India,"  speak  for  himself. 

I  extract  from  the  article  "  Colony,"  in  the  supplement 
to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  and  which  is  from  the 
pen  of  Mill,  the  following  paragraph : 

"  What  are  the  best  means  of  checking  the  progress 
of  population,  when  it  cannot  go  on  unrestrained  without 
producing  one  or  other  of  two  most  undesirable  effects, 
either  drawing  an  undue  portion  of  the  population  to  the 
mere  raising  of  food,  or  producing  poverty  and  wretched- 
ness, it  is  not  now  the  time  to  enquire.  It  is,  indeed, 
the  most  important  practical  problem  to  which  the 
wisdom  of  the  politician  and  the  moralist  can  be  ap- 
plied. It  has,  till  this  time,  been  miserably  evaded  by 
all  those  who  have  meddled  with  the  subject,  as  well  as 
by  those  who  were  called  upon  by  their  situation  to  find 
a  remedy  for  the  evils  to  which  it  relates.  And  yet,  if 
the  superstitions  of  the  nursery  were  disregarded,  and 
the  principle  of  utility  kept  steadily  in  mew,  a  solution 
might  not  be  very  difficult  to  be  found  ;  and  the  means 
of  drying  up  one  of  the  most  copious  sources  of  human 
evil — a  source  which  if  all  other  sources  were  taken 

3* 


30  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY 

away,  might  alone  suffice  to  retain  the  great  mass  of 
human  beings  in  misery,  might  be  seen  to  be  neither 
doubtful  nor  difficult  to  be  applied." 

Let  my  readers  bear  in  mind,  that  this  is  from  the  pen 
of  one  of  the  most  justly  admired  writers  of  the  present 
day;  a  man  celebrated  throughout  all  Europe,  for  his 
works  on  political  economy,  and  whose  writings  are  not 
unknown  even  on  this  side  the  Atlantic.  He  considers  the 
question  now  under  discussion  to  involve  "  the  most  im- 
portant problem  to  which  the  wisdom  of  the  politician 
and  moralist  can  be  applied."  This  question,  he  admits, 
has  ever  been  "  miserably  evaded."  Yet  even  a  man  so 
influential  and  enlightened  as  Mill,  must  himself  yield  to 
the  weakness  he  reprobates  ;  must  speak  in  parables,  as 
the  Nazarene  reformer  did  before  him  ;  and,  even  while 
commenting  on  the  "  miserable  evasion"  of  a  subject  so 
engrossingly  important,  must  imitate  the  very  evasion 
he  despises. 

I  will  not  imitate  it.  I  am  more  independently  situa- 
ted than  the  English  economist ;  and  I  see,  as  clearly  as 
he  does,  the  extreme  importance  of  the  subject.  What 
he  saw  and  declared  ought  to  be  said,  I  will  say. 

Before  concluding  this  chapter,  let  me  state  distinctly, 
that  I  by  no  means  agree  with  Malthus  and  other  poli- 
tical economists  in  believing,  that,  at  this  moment,  there 
is  an  actual  excess  of  population  in  any  country  (China 
perhaps  excepted)  in  the  known  world.  I  believe  that 
there  is  more  than  enough  land  in  every  country  of 
Europe  to  support,  in  perfect  comfort,  all  its  present 
inhabitants.  That  they  are  not  supported  in  comfort, 
is,  in  my  opinion,  attributable,  not  to  overpopulation,  but 
to  mal-government.  Monopolies  favour  the  rich,  taxes 
oppress  the  poor,  commercial  rivalry  grinds  its  victims  to 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  31 

the  dust.  To  such  causes  as  these,  and  not  to  over- 
population, at  the  time  being,  is  the  mass  of  distress  (felt 
more  or  less  over  the  civilized  world)  to  be  attributed. 
Thus,  if  the  enemies  of  reform  would  but  let  us  alonef 
we  might  long  postpone  to  other  and  more  important 
discussions,  this  population  question.  But  they  will  not. 
They  force  it  upon  us.  And  though  it  might  have 
evinced  want  of  judgment  to  obtrude  it  unnecessarily 
or  prematurely  on  the  public,  it  would  betray  cowardice 
to  evade  it  now,  when  thrust  upon  us. 

Besides,  though  it  be  undeniable  that  iniquitous  laws 
and  a  vicious  order  of  things  often  produce  the  result 
that  is  falsely  attributed  to  overpopulation,  it  is  yet  equal- 
ly undeniable,  that  the  most  perfect  system  of  laws  in 
the  world  could  not  ultimately  prevent  the  evils  of  a 
superabundant  population.  And  it  is  no  less  certain, 
that,  in  the  meantime,  the  pressure  of  a  large  family  on 
the  labouring  man  greatly  augments  the  evil,  and  often 
deprives  him  of  that  very  leisure  which  he  might  em- 
ploy in  devising  constitutional  means  to  better  his  condi- 
tion, instead  of  leaving  public  business  in  the  hands  of 
political  gamblers.  Thus  an  answer  to  the  population 
question  is  offered  as  an  alleviation  of  existing  evils,  not 
as  a  cure  for  them.  Population  might  be  but  half  what 
it  is,  and  unjust  legislation  and  vicious  customs  would 
still  give  birth,  as  they  now  do,  to  luxury  and  want. 
The  laws  and  customs  ought  to  be,  must  be  changed ; 
but,  while  the  grass  is  growing,  let  us  prevent  the  horse 
from  starving,  if  we  can. 

Enough  has  been  said,  probably,  in  this  chapter,  to  de* 
termine  the  question,  whether  it  is,  or  is  not,  desirable,  in 
a  political  point  of  view,  that  some  check  to  population 
be  sought  and  disclosed — some  "  moral  restraint"  that 
shall  not,  like  vice  and  misery,  be  demoralizing,  nor, 
like  late  marriages,  be  ascetic  and  impracticable. 


32  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE    QUESTION    CONSIDERED    IN    ITS    SOCIAL 
BEARINGS. 

This  is  by  far  the  most  important  branch  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  evils  caused  by  an  overstocking  of  the  world, 
if  even  inevitable,  are  distant ;  and  an  abstract  view  of 
the  subject,  however  unanswerable, does  not  come  home  to 
the  mind  with  the  force  of  detailed  reality. 

What  would  be  the  probable  effect,  in  social  life,  if 
mankind  obtained  and  exercised  a  control  over  the  in- 
stinct of  reproduction  ? 

My  settled  conviction  is — and  I  am  prepared  to  defend 
it — that  the  effect  would  be  salutary,  moral,  civilizing ; 
that  it  would  prevent  many  crimes  and  more  unhappi- 
ness ;  that  it  would  lessen  intemperance  and  profligacy ; 
that  it  would  polish  the  manners  and  improve  the  moral 
feelings ;  that  it  would  relieve  the  burden  of  the  poor, 
and  the  cares  of  the  rich ;  that  it  would  most  essentially 
benefit  the  rising  generation,  by  enabling  parents  general- 
ly more  carefully  to  educate,  and  more  comfortably  to  pro- 
vide for,  their  offspring.  I  proceed  to  substantiate  as  I 
may  these  positions. 

And  first,  let  us  look  solely  to  the  situation  of  married 
persons.  Is  it  not  notorious,  that  the  families  of  the 
married  often  increase  beyond  what  a  regard  for  the 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  33 

young  beings  coming  into  the  world,  or  the  happiness  of 
those  who  give  them  birth,  would  dictate  ?  In  how  many 
instances  does  the  hard-working  father,  and  more  espe- 
cially the  mother,  of  a  poor  family,  remain  slaves  through- 
out their  lives,  tugging  at  the  oar  of  incessant  labour, 
toiling  to  live,  and  living  only  to  die  ;  when,  if  their  off- 
spring had  been  limited  to  two  or  three  only,  they  might 
have  enjoyed  comfort  and  comparative  affluence  !  How 
often  is  the  health  of  the  mother,  giving  birth  every  year 
to  an  infant — happy,  if  it  be  not  twins  ! — and  compelled 
to  toil  on,  even  at  those  times  when  nature  imperiously 
calls  for  some  relief  from  daily  drudgery — how  often  is  the 
mother's  comfort,  health,  nay,  her  life,  thus  sacrificed  !  Or, 
if  care  and  toil  have  weighed  down  the  spirit,  and  at  last 
broken  the  health  of  the  father,  how  often  is  the  widow 
left,  unable,  with  the  most  virtuous  intentions,  to  save  her 
fatherless  offspring  from  becoming  degraded  objects  of 
charity,  or  profligate  votaries  of  vice  ! 

Fathers  and  mothers  !  not  you  who  have  your  nurse- 
ry and  your  nursery  maids,  and  who  leave  your  children 
at  home,  to  frequent  the  crowded  rout,  or  to  glitter  in 
the  hot  ball-room  ;  but  you  by  the  labour  of  whose  hands 
your  children  are  to  live,  and  who,  as  you  count  their 
rising  numbers,  sigh  to  think  how  soon  sickness  or  mis- 
fortune may  lessen  those  wages  which  are  now  but  just 
sufficient  to  afford  them  bread— fathers  and  mothers  in 
humble  life  !  to  you  my  argument  comes  home,  with  the 
force  of  reality.  Others  may  impugn — may  ridicule  it. 
By  bitter  experience  you  know  and  feel  its  truth. 

It  will  be  said,  that  government  ought  to  provide  for  the 
support  and  education  of  all  the  children  of  the  land. 
No  one  is  less  inclined  to  deny  the  position  than  I. 
But  it  does  not  support  and  educate  them.  And,  if  it 
did,  a  period  must  come  at  la.gt,  when  even  such  an  act 


34  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

of  justice  would  be  no  relief  from  the  evils  of  over- 
population. 

Yet  this  is  not  all.  Every  physician  knows,  that 
there  are  many  women  so  constituted  that  they  cannot 
give  birth  to  healthy — sometimes  not  to  living  children, 
Is  it  desirable — is  it  moral,  that  such  women  should 
become  pregnant?  Yet  this  is  continually  the  case, 
the  warnings  of  physicians  to  the  contrary  notwithstand- 
ing. Others  there  are,  who  ought  never  to  become  pa- 
rents ;  because,  if  they  do,  it  is  only  to  transmit  to  their 
offspring  grievous  hereditary  diseases ;  perhaps  that 
worst  of  diseases,  insanity.  Yet  they  will  not  lead  a 
life  of  celibacy.  They  marry.  They  become  parents, 
and  the  world  suffers  by  it.  That  a  human  being 
should  give  birth  to  a  child,  knowing  that  he  transmits 
to  it  hereditary  disease,  is,  in  my  opinion,  an  immorality. 
But  it  is  a  folly  to  expect  that  we  can  ever  induce'  all 
such  persons  to  live  the  lives  of  Shakers.  Nor  is  it  ne- 
cessary :  all  that  duty  requires  of  them  is,  to  refrain  from 
becoming  parents.  Who  can  estimate  the  beneficial 
effect  which  rational  moral  restraint  may  thus  have,  on 
the  health,  beauty,  and  physical  improvement  of  our 
race,  throughout  future  generations  ! 

But,  apart  from  these  latter  considerations,  is  it  not  most 
plainly,  clearly,  incontrovertibly  desirable,  that  parents 
should  have  the  power*  to  limit  their  offspring,  whether 
they  choose  to  exercise  it  or  not  ?  Who  can  lose  by 
their  having  this  power  ?  and  how  many  may  gain  ! 


*  It  may  perhaps  be  argued,  that  all  married  persons  have  this  power 
already,  seeing  that  they  are  no  more  obliged  to  become  parents  than 
the  unmarried ;  they  may  live  as  the  brethren  and  sisters  among  the 
Shakers  do.  But  this  Shaker  remedy  is,  in  the  first  place,  utterly  im- 
practicable, as  a  general  rule  ;  and,  secondly,  it  would  chill  and  embitter 
domestic  life,  even  if  it  were  practicable. 


M6&AL  PHYSIOLOGY.  35 

may  gain  competency  for  themselves,  and  the  opportuni- 
ty carefully  to  educate  and  provide  for  their  children ! 
How  many  may  escape  the  jarrings,  the  quarrels,  the  dis- 
order, the  anxiety,  which  an  overgrown  family  too  often 
causes  in  the  domestic  circle  ! 

It  sometimes  happens,  that  individual  instances  come 
home  to  the  feelings  with  greater  force  than  any  gene- 
ral reasoning.  I  shall,  in  this  place,  adduce  one  which 
came  immediately  under  my  cognizance. 

In  June,  1829,  I  received  from  an  elderly  gentleman 
of  the  first  respectability,  occupying  a  public  situation 
in  one  of  the  western  states,  a  letter,  requesting  to  know 
whether  I  could  afford  any  information  or  advice  in  a 
case  which  greatly  interested  him,  and  which  regarded  a 
young  woman  for  whom  he  had  ever  experienced  the 
sentiments  of  a  father.  In  explanation  of  the  circum- 
stances to  which  he  alluded,  he  enclosed  me  a  copy  of  a 
letter  which  she  had  just  written  to  him,  and  which  I 
here  transcribe  verbatim.  A  letter  more  touching  from 
its  simplicity,  or  more  strikingly  illustrative  of  the  unfor- 
tunate situation  in  which  not  one,  but  thousands,  in  mar- 
ried life,  find  themselves  placed,  I  have  never  read. 

L***,  KENTUCKY,  MAY  3,  1829. 

DEAR  SIR, 

The  friendship  which  has  existed  between  you  and 
my  father,  ever  since  I  can  remember;  the  unaffected 
kindness  you  used  to  express  towards  me,  when  you  re- 
sided in  our  neighbourhood,  during  my  childhood ;  the 
lively  solicitude  you  have  always  seemed  to  feel  for  my 
welfare,  and  your  benevolent  and  liberal  character,  in- 
duce me  to  lay  before  you,  in  a  few  words,  my  critical 
situation,  and  ask  you  for  your  kind  advice. 

It  is  my  lot  to  be  united  in  wedlock  to  a  young  me- 


36  MOftAL  PHYSIOLOGY, 

chanic  of  industrious  habits,  good  dispositions,  pleasing 
manners,  and  agreeable  features,  excessively  fond  of  our 
children  and  of  me ;  in  short,  eminently  well  qualified  to 
render  himself  and  family  and  all  around  him  happy, 
were  it  not  for  the  besetting  sin  of  drunkenness.  About 
once  in  every  three  or  four  weeks,  if  he  meet,  either  acci- 
dentally or  purposely,  with  some  of  his  friends,  of  whom, 
either  real  or  pretended,  his  good  nature  and  liberality 
procure  him  many,  he  is  sure  to  get  intoxicated,  so  as  to 
lose  his  reason ;  and,  when  thus  beside  himself,  he 
trades  and  makes  foolish  bargains,  so  much  to  his  dis- 
advantage, that  he  has  almost  reduced  himself  and  fami- 
ly to  beggary,  being  no  longer  able  to  keep  a  shop  of  his 
own,  but  obliged  to  work  journey  work. 

We  have  not  been  married  quite  four  years,  and  have 
akeady  given  being  to  three  dear  little  ones.  Under  pre- 
sent circumstances,  what  can  I  expect  will  be  their  fate 
and  mine  ?  I  shudder  at  the  prospect  before  me.  With 
my  excellent  constitution  and  industry,  and  the  labour 
of  my  husband,  I  feel  able  to  bring  up  these  three  little 
cherubs  in  decency,  were  I  to  have  no  more  :  but  when 
I  seriously  consider  my  situation,  I  can  see  no  other  al- 
ternative left  for  me,  than  to  tear  myself  away  from  the 
man  who,  though  addicted  to  occasional  intoxication, 
would  sacrifice  his  life  for  my  sake ;  and  for  whom,  con- 
trary to  my  father's  will,  I  successively  refused  the  hand 
and  wealth  of  a  lawyer  and  of  a  preacher  ;  or  continue 
to  witness  his  degradation,  and  bring  into  existence,  in 
all  probability,  a  numerous  family  of  helpless  and  desti- 
tute children,  who,  on  account  of  poverty,  must  inevita- 
bly be  doomed  to  a  life  of  ignorance,  and  consequent  vice 
and  misery. 

The  dreadful  sentence  pronounced  against  me  by  my 
father  for  my  disobedience,  forbids  me  applying  to  him, 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY*  37 

either  for  advice  or  any  thing  else.  My  husband  being 
somewhat  sceptical,  my  father  attributes  his  intemper- 
ance to  his  infidelity  ;  though  my  brother,  as  you  know, 
being  a  member  of  the  same  church  with  my  father,  is 
nevertheless,  though  he  does  not  fool  away  his  property, 
more  of  a  drunkard  than  my  husband,  and  ranks  among 
the  faithful.  You  wrill  therefore  plainly  see,  that  for 
these  and  other  reasons,  I  stand  the  more  in  need  of  your 
friendly  advice ;  and  I  do  hope  and  believe,  you  will 
give  me  such  advice  and  counsel  as  you  would  to  your 
own  daughter,  had  you  one  in  the  same  predicament 
that  I  am.  In  so  doing,  you  will  add  new  claims  to  the 
gratitude  of  your  friend,  M.  W. 

J^eed  I  add  one  word  of  comment  on  such  a  case  as 
this  ?  Every  feeling  mind  must  be  touched  by  the  amia- 
ble feeling  and  good  sense  that  pervade  the  letter.  Every 
rational  being,  surely,  must  admit,  that  the  power  of  pre- 
venting, without  injury  or  sacrifice,  the  increase  of  a 
family,  under  such  circumstances,  is  a  public  benefit  and 
a  private  blessing. 

"Will  it  be  asserted — and  I  know  no  other  even  plau- 
sible reply  to  these  facts  and  arguments — will  it  be  as- 
serted, that  the  thing  is,  in  itself,  immoral  or  unseemly? 
I  deny  it ;  and  I  point  to  the  population  of  France,  in 
justification  of  my  denial.  Where  will  you  find,  on  the 
face  of  the  globe,  a  more  polished  or  more  civilized  na- 
tion than  the  French,  or  one  more  punctiliously  alive  to 
any  rudeness,  coarseness,  or  indecorum  ?  You  will  find 
none.  The  French  are  scrupulous  on  these  points,  to  a 
proverb.  Yet,  as  every  intelligent  traveller  in  France 
must  have  remarked,  there  is  scarcely  to  be  found,  among 
the  middle  or  upper  classes,  (and  seldom  even  among 
the  working  classes,)  such  a  thing  as  a  large  family  ] 

4 


38  MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY. 

very  seldom  more  than  three  or  four  children.  A  French 
lady  of  the  utmost  delicacy  and  respectability  will,  in 
common  conversation,  say  as  simply — (ay,  and  as  in- 
nocently, whatever  the  self-righteous  prude  may  aver  to 
the  contrary) — as  she  would  proffer  any  common  remark 
about  the  weather  :  "  I  have  three  children  ;  my  hus- 
band and  I  think  that  is  as  many  as  we  can  do  justice  to, 
and  I  do  not  intend  to  have  any  more."* 

I  have  stated  notorious  facts,  facts  which  no  traveller 
who  has  visited  Paris,  and  seen  any  thing  of  the  domes- 
tic life  of  its  inhabitants,  will  attempt  to  deny.  However 
heterodox,  then,  my  view  of  the  subject  may  be  in  this 
country,  I  am  supported  in  it  by  the  opinion  and  the 
practice  of  the  most  refined  and  most  socially  cultivated 
nation  in  the  world. 

Will  it  still  be  argued,  that  the  practice,  if  not  coarse, 
is  immoral  ?  Again  I  appeal  to  France.  I  appeal  to 
the-  details  of  the  late  glorious  revolution — to  the  innu- 
merable instances  of  moderation,  of  courage,  of  honesty, 
of  disinterestedness,  of  generosity,  of  magnanimity,  dis- 
played on  the  memorable  "  three  days,"  and  ever  since ; 
and  I  challenge  comparison  between  the  national  charac- 
ter of  France  for. virtue,  as  well  as  politeness,  and  that 
of  any  other  nation  under  heaven. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that,  to  married  persons,  the  power 
of  limiting  their  offspring  to  their  circumstances  is  most 
desirable.  It  may  often  promote  the  harmony,  peace, 
and  comfort  of  families  ;  sometimes  it  may  save  from 
bankruptcy  and  ruin,  and  sometimes  it  may  rescue  the 
mother  from  premature  death.  In  no  case  can  it,  by 

*  Will  our  sensitive  fine  ladies  blush  at  the  plain  good  sense 
and  simplicity  of  such  an  observation  ?  Let  me  tell  them,  the 
indelicacy  is  in  their  own  minds,  not  in  the  words  of  the  French 
mother. 


MO&AL    PHYSIOLOGY.  39 

possibility,  be  worse  than  superfluous.     In  no  case  can 
it  be  mischievous. 

If  the  moral  feelings  were  carefully  cultivated,  if  we 
were  taught  to  consult,  in  every  thing1,  rather  the  wel- 
fare of  those  we  love  than  our  own,  how  strongly  would 
these  arguments  be  felt !  No  man  ought  even  to  desire 
that  a  woman  should  become  the  mother  of  his  children, 
unless  it  was  her  express  wish,  and  unless  he  knew  it  to 
be  for  her  welfare,  that  she  should.  Her  feelings,  her 
interests,  should  be  for  him  in  this  matter  an  imperative 
law.  She  it  is  who  bears  the  burden,  and  therefore  with 
her  also  should  the  decision  rest.  Surely  it  may  well  be 
a  question  whether  it  be  desirable,  or  whether  any  man 
ought  to  ask,  that  the  whole  life  of  an  intellectual,  culti- 
vated woman,  should  be  spent  in  bearing  a  family  of 
twelve  or  fifteen  children  ;  to  the  ruin,  perhaps,  of  her 
constitution,  if  not  to  the  overstocking  of  the  world.  No 
man  ought  to  require  or  expect  it. 

Shall  I  be  told,  that  this  is  the  very  romance  of  morali- 
ty ?  Alas  !  that  what  ought  to  be  a  matter  of  every  day 
practice — a  common-place  exercise  of  the  duties  and 
charities  of  life — a  bounden  duty — an  instance  of  do- 
mestic courtesy  too  universal  either  to  excite  remark  or 
to  merit  commendation — alas-!  that  a  virtue  so  humble 
that  its  absence  ought  to  be  reproached  as  a  crime, 
should,  to  our  selfish  perceptions,  seem  but  a  fastidious 
refinement,  or  a  fanciful  supererogation  ! 

But  I  pass  from  the  case  of  married  persons  to  that 
of  young  men  and  women  who  have  yet  formed  no  ma- 
trimonial connexion. 

In  the  present  state  of  the  world,  when  public  opinion 
stamps  with  opprobrium  every  sexual  connexion  which 
has  not  received  the  orthodox  sanction  of  an  oath,  al- 
most all  young  persons,  on  reaching  the  age  of  maturi- 


40  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

ty,  desire  to  marry.  The  heart  must  be  very  cold,  or 
very  isolated,  that  does  not  find  some  object  on  which 
to  bestow  its  affections.  Thus,  early  marriages  would 
be  almost  universal,  did  not  prudential  considerations  in- 
terfere. The  young  man  thinks,  "  I  must  not  marry 
yet.  I  cannot  support  a  family.  I  must  make  money 
first,  and  think  of  a  matrimonial  settlement  afterwards." 
And  so  he  goes  to  making  money,  fully  and  sincerely 
resolved,  in  a  few  years,  to  share  it  with  her  whom  he 
now  loves.  But  passions  are  strong,  and  temptations 
great.  Curiosity,  perhaps,  introduces  him  into,  the  com- 
pany of  those  poor  creatures  whom  society  first  reduces 
to  a  dependence  on  the  most  miserable  of  mercenary 
trades,  and  then  curses  for  being  what  she  has  made 
them.  There  his  health  and  his  moral  feelings  alike 
make  shipwreck.  The  affections  he  had  thought  to 
treasure  up  for  their  first  object,  are  chilled  by  dissipa- 
tion and  blunted  by  excess.  He  scarcely  retains  a  pas- 
sion but  avarice.  Years  pass  on — years  of  profligacy 
and  speculation — and  his  first  wish  is  accomplished  ;  his 
fortune  is  made.  Where  now  are  the  feelings  and  re- 
solves of  his  youth  ? 

Like  the  dew  on  the  mountain, 

Like  the  foam  on  the  river, 
Like  the  bubble  on  the  fountain. 

They  are  gone — and  for  ever ! 

He  is  a  man  of  pleasure — a  man  of  the  world.  He 
laughs  at  the  romance  of  his  youth,  and  marries  a  for- 
tune. If  gaudy  equipages  and  gay  parties  confer  hap- 
piness, he  is  happy.  But  if  these  be  only  the  sunshine 
on  the  stormy  ocean  below,  he  is  a  victim  to  that  sys- 
tem of  morality,  which  forbids  a  reputable  connexion 
until  the  period  when  provision  has  been  made  for  a 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY*  41 

large,  expected  family.  Had  he  married  the  first  object 
of  his  choice,  and  simply  delayed  becoming  a  father  until 
his  prospects  seemed  to  warrant  it,  how  different  might 
have  been  his  lot !  Until  men  and  women  are  absolved 
from  the  fear  of  becoming  parents,  except  when  they 
themselves  desire  it,  they  ever  will  form  mercenary  and 
demoralizing  connexions,  and  seek  in  dissipation  the 
happiness  they  might  have  found  in  domestic  life. 

I  know  that  this,  however  common,  is  not  a  universal 
case.  Sometimes  the  heavy  responsibilities  of  a  family 
are  incurred,  at  all  risks  ;  and  who  shall  say  how  often 
a  life  of  unremitting  toil  and  poverty  is  the  consequence? 
Sometimes — if  even  rarely — the  young  mind  does  hold 
to  its  first  resolves.  The  youth  plods  through  years  of 
cold  celibacy  and  solitary  anxiety  ;  happy,  if  before  the 
best  hours  of  life  are  gone,  and  its  warmest  feelings 
withered,  he  may  return  to  claim  the  reward  of  his  for- 
bearance and  his  industry.  But  even  in  this  compara- 
tively happy  case,  shall  we  count  for  nothing  the  years 
of  ascetical  sacrifice  at  which  after-happiness  is  pur- 
chased ?  The  days  of  youth  are  not  too  mkny,  nor  its 
affections  too  lasting.  We  may,  indeed,  if  a  great  object 
require  it,  sacrifice  the  one  and  mortify  the  other.  But 
is  this,  in  itself,  desirable  ?  Does  not  wisdom  tell  us, 
that  such  sacrifice  is  a  dead  loss — to  the  warm-hearted 
often  a  grievous  one  ?  Does  not  wisdom  bid  us  tem- 
perately enjoy  the  spring-time  of  life,  "  while  the  evil 
days  come  not,  nor  the  years  draw  nigh,  when  we  shall 
say,  *  We  have  no  pleasure  in  them  T J: 

Let  us  say,  then,  if  we  will,  that  the  youth  who  thus 
sacrifices  the  present  for  the  future,  chooses  wisely  be- 
tween two  evils,  profligacy  and  asceticism.  This  is 
true.  But  let  us  not  imagine  the  lesser  evil  to  be  a 
good.  It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone.  It  is  for  no 


42  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

man's  or  woman's  happiness  or  benefit,  that  they  should 
be  condemned  to  Shakerism.  It  is  a  violence  done  to 
the  feelings,  and  an  injury  to  the  character.  A  life  of 
rigid  celibacy,  though  infinitely  preferable  to  a  life  of 
dissipation,  is  yet  fraught  with  many  evils.  Peevish- 
ness, restlessness,  vague  longings,  and  instability  of  cha 
racter,  are  among  the  least  of  these.  The  mind  is  un- 
settled, and  the  judgment  warped.  Even  the  very  in- 
stinct which  is  thus  mortified,  assumes  an  undue  im- 
portance, and  occupies  a  portion  of  the  thoughts  which 
does  not  of  right  or  nature  belong  to  it ;  and  which, 
during  a  life  of  satisfied  affection,  it  would  not  obtain. 

I  speak  not  now  of  extreme  cases,  where  solitary  vice* 
or  disease,  or  even  insanity,  has  been  the  result  of  asceti- 
cal  mortification.  I  speak  of  every  day  cases :  and  I 
am  well  convinced,  that,  (however  wise  it  often  is,  in  the 
present  state  of  the  world,  to  select  and  adhere  to  this  al- 
ternative,) yet  no  man  or  woman  can  live  the  life  of  a 
conscientious  Shaker,  without  suffering,  more  or  less, 
both  physically,  mentally,  and  morally.  This  is  the 
more  to  be  regretted,  because  the  very  noblest  portion  of 

*  For  a  vice  so  unnatural  as  onanism  there  could  be  no  possible 
temptation,  and  therefore  no  existence,  were  not  men  unnatural- 
ly and  mischievously  situated.  It  first  appeared,  probably,  in 
monasteries ;  and  has  been  perpetuated  by  the  more  or  less 
anti-social  and  demoralizing  relation  in  which  the  sexes  stand  to 
each  other,  in  almost  all  countries.  In  estimating  the  consequen- 
ces of  the  present  false  situation  of  society,  we  must  set  down  to 
the  black  account  the  wretched,  wretched  consequences  (termi- 
nating not  unfrequently  in  incurable  insanity)  of  this  vice,  the 
preposterous  offspring  of  modern  civilization.  Physicians  say 
that  onanism  at  present  prevails,  to  a  lamentable  extent,  both  in 
this  country  and  England.  If  the  recommendations  contained  in 
this  little  treatise  were  generally  followed,  it  would  probably  to- 
tallv  disappear  in  a  single  generation. 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY*  43 

our  species — the  good,  the  pure,  the  high-minded,  and 
the  kind-hearted — are  the  chief  victims. 

Thus,  inasmuch  as  the  scruple  of  incurring  heavy 
responsibilities  deters  from  forming  moral  connexions, 
and  encourages  intemperance  and  prostitution,  the  know- 
ledge which  enables  man  to  limit  his  offspring,  would,  in 
the  present  state  of  things,  save  much  unhappiness  and 
prevent  many  crimes.  Young  persons  sincerely  attach- 
ed to  each  other,  and  who  might  wish  to  marry,  would 
marry  early ;  merely  resolving  not  to  become  parents 
until  prudence  permitted  it.  The  young  man,  instead 
of  solitary  toil  or  vulgar  dissipation,  would  enjoy  the 
society  and  the  assistance  of  her  he  had  chosen  as  his 
companion  ;  and  the  best  years  of  life,  whose  pleasures 
never  return,  would  not  be  squandered  in  riot,  or  lost 
through  mortification. 

My  readers  will  remark,  that  all  the  arguments  I 
have  hitherto  employed,  apply  strictly  to  the  present 
order  of  things,  and  the  present  laws  and  system  of 
marriage.  No  one,  therefore,  need  be  a  moral  heretic 
on  this  subject  to  admit  and  approve  them.  The  mar- 
riage laws  might  all  remain  for  ever  as  they  are ;  and 
yet  a  moral  check  to  population  would  be  beneficent  and 
important. 

But  there  are  other  cases,  it  will  be  said,  where  the 
knowledge  of  such  a  check  would  be  mischievous.  If 
young  women,  it  will  be  argued,  were  absolved  from  the 
fear  of  consequences,  they  would  rarely  preserve  their 
chastity.  Unlegalized  connexions  would  be  common 
and  seldom  detected.  Seduction  would  be  facilitated. 
Let  us  dispassionately  examine  this  argument. 

I  fully  agree  with  that  most  amiable  of  moral  heretics, 
Shelley,  that  "  Seduction,  which  term  could  have  no 


44  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY, 

meaning  in  a  rational  society,  has  now  a  most  tremen- 
dous one."*  It  matters  not  how  artificial  the  penalty 
which  society  has  chosen  to  affix  to  a  breach  of  her  capri- 
cious decrees.  Society  has  the  power  in  her  own  hands ; 
and  that  moral  Shylock,  Public  Opinion,  enforces  the 
penalty,  even  though  it  cost  the  life  of  the  victim.  The 
consequences,  then,  to  the  poor  sufferer,  whose  offence 
is,  at  most,  but  an  error  of  judgment  or  a  weakness  of 
the  heart,  are  the  same  as  if  her  imprudence  were  in- 
deed a  crime  of  the  blackest  dye.  And  his  conduct  who, 
for  a  momentary,  selfish  gratification,  will  deliberately 
entail  a  life  of  wretchedness  on  one  whose  chief  fault, 
perhaps,  was  her  misplaced  confidence  in  a  villain,  is 
not  one  whit  excused  by  the  folly  and  injustice  of  the 
sentence.t  Some  poet  says, 

"  The  man  who  lays  his  hand  upon  a  woman 
Save  in  the  way  of  kindness,  is  a  wretch 
Whom  'twere  gross  flattery  to  call  a  coward." 

What  epithet,  then,  belongs  to  him  who  makes  it  a 
trade  to  win  a  woman's  gentle  affections,  betray  her 
generous  confidence,  and  then,  when  the  consequences 
become  apparent,  abandon  her  to  dependence,  and  the 
scorn  of  a  cold,  a  self-righteous,  and  a  wicked  world  ;  a 

*  See  letter  of  Percy  Byssche  Shelley,  published  in  the  "Lion," 
of  December  5,  1828. 

t  Every  reflecting  mind  will  distinguish  between  the  unrea- 
soning— sometimes  even  generous,  imprudence  of  youthful  pas- 
sion, and  the  calculating  selfishness  of  the  matured  and  heartless 
libertine.  It  is  a  melancholy  truth,  that  pseudo-civilization  pro- 
duces thousands  of  seducers  by  profession,  who,  while  daily  call- 
ing the  heavens  to  witness  their  eternal  affections,  have  no  affec- 
tion for  any  thing  on  earth  but  their  own  precious  and  profligate 
selves.  It  is  to  characters  so  utterly  worthless  as  these  that  my 
observations  apply. 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  45 

world  which  will  forgive  any  thing  but  rebellion  against 
its  tyranny,  and  in  whose  eyes  it  seems  the  greatest  of 
crimes  to  be  unsuspecting  and  w7arni-hearted !  I  will 
give  my  hand  freely  to  a  galley-slave,  and  speak  to  the 
highway-robber  as  to  an  honest  man ;  but  there  is  one 
character  with  whom  I  desire  to  exchange  neither  word  nor 
greeting — the  cold-hearted,  deliberate,  practised,  and 
calculating  seducer ! 

And,  let  me  ask,  what  is  it  gives  to  the  arts  of  seduc- 
tion their  sting,  and  stamps  to  the  world  its  victim  ? 
Why  is  it,  that  the  man  goes  free  and  enters  society 
again,  almost  courted  and  applauded  for  his  treachery ; 
wrhile  the  woman  is  a  mark  for  the  finger  of  reproach, 
and  a  butt  for  the  tongue  of  scandal  ?  Because  she  bears 
about  her  the  mark  of  what  is  called  her  disgrace.  She 
becomes  a  mother ;  and  society  has  something  tangible 
against  which  to  direct  its  anathemas.  Nine  tenths,  at 
least,  of  the  misery  and  ruin  which  are  caused  by  seduc- 
tion, even  in  the  present  state  of  public  opinion  on  the 
subject,  result  from  cases  of  pregnancy.  Perhaps  the 
unfeeling  selfishness  of  him  who  fears  to  become  a 
father,  administers  some  noxious  drug  to  procure  abor- 
tion ;  perhaps — for  even  such  scenes  our  courts  of  jus- 
tice disclose  ! — perhaps  the  frenzy  of  the  wretched  mother 
takes  the  life  of  her  infant,  or  seeks  in  suicide  the  con- 
summation of  her  wrongs  and  her  woes  !  Or,  if  the 
little  being  lives,  the  dove  in  the  falcon's  claws  is  not 
more  certain  of  death,  than  we  may  be,  that  society  will 
visit,  with  its  bitterest  scoffs  and  reproaches,  the  bruised 
spirit  of  the  mother  and  the  unconscious  innocence  of 
the  child. 

If,  then,  we  cannot  do  all,  shall  we  neglect  a  part  ? 
If  we  cannot  prevent  every  misery  which  man's  selfish- 
ness and  the  world's  cruelty  entail  on  a  sex  which  it 


46  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

ought  to  be  our  pride  and  honour  to  cherish  and  defend; 
let  u$  prevent  as  many  as  we  can.  If  we  cannot  per- 
suade society  to  revoke  its  unmanly  and  unchristian* 
persecution  of  those  who  are  often  the  best  and  gentlest 
of  its  members — let  us,  at  the  least,  give  to  woman  what 
defence  we  may,  against  its  violence. 

I  appeal  to  any  father,  trembling  for  the  reputation  of 
his  child,  whether,  if  she  were  induced  to  form  an  un- 
legalized  connexion,  her  pregnancy  would  not  be  a 
frightful  aggravation  ?  I  appeal  to  him,  whether  any 
innocent  preventive  which  shall  save  her  from  a  situation 
that  must  soon  disclose  all  to  the  world,  would  not  be 
an  act  of  mercy,  of  charity,  of  philanthropy— whether  it 
might  not  save  him  from  despair,  and  her  from  ruin  ? 
The  fastidious  conformist  may  frown  upon  the  question, 
but  to  the  father  it  comes  home ;  and,  whatever  his 
lips  may  say,  his  heart  will  acknowledge  the  soundness 
and  the  force  of  the  argument  it  conveys.t 

*  Jesus  said  unto  her,  "  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee." — John 
viii.  11. 

f  What  is  the  actual  state  of  society  in  Great  Britain,  and  even 
in  this  republic,  that  pseudo-civilization,  in  her  superlative  deli- 
cacy, should  so  fastidiously  scruple  to  speak  of  or  to  sanction  a 
simple,  moral,  effectual  check  to  population  ?  Are  her  sons  all 
chaste  and  temperate,  and  her  daughters  all  passionless  and 
pure  ?  I  might  disclose,  if  I  would,  in  this  very  city  of  New- 
York — and  in  our  neighbour  city  of  Philadelphia — scenes  and 
practices  that  have  come  to  light  from  time  to  time,  and  that 
would  furnish  no  very  favourable  answer  to  the  question.  I 
might  ask,  whether  all  the  houses  of  assignation  in  these  two 
cities  are  frequented  by  the  known  profligate  alone  ?  or,  whether 
some  of  the  most  outwardly  respectable  fathers — ay,  mothers  of 
families — have  not  been  found  in  resorts  supported  and  frequented 
only  by  "  good  society"  like  themselves  ? 

As  regards  Great  Britain,  I  might  quote  the  evidence  deliver- 
ed before  a  "  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  on  Labourers' 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  47 

It  may  be,  that  some  sticklers  for  orthodox  morality 
will  still  demur  to  the  positions  I  defend.  They  will 
perhaps  tell  me,  as  the  Committee  of  a  certain  Society 
in  this  city  lately  did,  that  the  power  of  preventing  con- 
ceptions "holds  out  inducements  and  facilities  for  the  pros- 
titution of  their  daughters,  their  sisters,  and  their  wives."* 

Wages,"  by  Henry  Drummond,  a  banker,  magistrate,  and  large 
land-owner  in  the  county  of  Surry,  in  which  the  following  ques- 
tion and  answer  occur :  Q,.  "  What  is  the  practice  you  allude 
to  of  forcing  marriages  ?"  A.  "  I  believe  nothing  is  more  erro- 
neous than  the  assertion,  that  the  poor  laws  tend  to  imprudent 
marriages ;  I  never  knew  an  instance  of  a  girl  being  married 
until  she  was  with  child,  nor  ever  knew  of  a  marriage  taking 
place  through  a  calculation  for  future  support."  Mr.  Dram- 
mond's  assertions  were  confirmed  by  other  equally  respectable 
witnesses ;  and  from  what  I  have  myself  learnt  in  conversation 
with  some  of  the  chief  manufacturers  of  England,  I  am  con- 
vinced, that  the  statement,  as  regards  the  working  population  in 
the  chief  manufacturing  districts,  is  scarcely  exaggerated. 

I  might  go  on  to  state,  that  the  spot  on  which  the  Foundling 
Hospital  in  Dublin  now  stands,  formerly  went  by  the  name  of 
"  Murderer's  Lane,"  from  the  number  of  child  murders  that  were 
perpetrated  in  the  vicinity. 

I  might  adduce  the  testimony  of  respectable  witnesses  in  proof^ 
that,  even  among  the  married,  the  blighting  effects  of  ergot  are 
not  unfrequently  incurred ;  by  those  very  persons,  probably,  who, 
in  public,  would  think  fit  to  be  terribly  shocked  at  this  little  book. 

But  why  multiply  proofs  ?  The  records  of  every  court  of  jus- 
tice, nay,  the  tittle  tattle  of  every  fashionable  drawing-room,  suf- 
ficiently marks  the  real  character  of  this  prudish  and  pharisaical 
world  of  ours. 

*  See  letter  of  the  Committee  of  the  Typographical  Society  to 
Robert  Dale  Owen,  published  in  the  Commercial  Advertiser  of 
the  29th  of  September,  and  copied  into  the  Free  Enquirer  of  the 
9th  of  October,  1830. 

For  a  statement  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  that  let- 
ter, and  which  induced  me,  at  this  time,  to  write  and  publish  the 
present  treatise,  see  Preface. 


48  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY* 

Truly,  but  they  pay  their  wives,  their  sisters,  and 
their  daughters,  a  poor  compliment !  Is,  then,  this 
vaunted  chastity  a  mere  thing  of  circumstance  and  oc- 
casion ?  Is  there  but  the  difference  of  opportunity  be- 
tween it  and  prostitution?  Would  their  wives,  and 
their  sisters,  and  their  daughters,  if  once  absolved  from 
the  fear  of  offspring,  all  become  prostitutes — all  sell  their 
embraces  for  gold,  and  descend  to  a  level  with  the  most 
degraded  ?  In  truth,  but  they  slander  their  own  kin- 
dred ;  they  libel  their  own  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters. 
If  they  spoke  truth — if  fear  were  indeed  the  only  safe- 
guard of  their  relatives'  chastity,  little  value  should  I 
place  on  a  virtue  like  that !  and  small  would  I  esteem 
his  offence,  who  should  attempt  or  seduce  it.* 

*.  I  should  like  to  hear  these  gentlemen  explain,  according  to 
what  principle  they  imagine  the  chastity  of  their  wives  to  grow 
out  of  a  fear  of  offspring ;  so  that,  if  released  from  such  fear, 
prostitution  would  follow.  I  can  readily  comprehend  that  the 
unmarried  may  be  supposed  careful  to  avoid  that  situation  to 
which  no  legal  cause  can  be  assigned ;  but  a  wife  must  be  espe- 
cially dull,  if  she  cannot  assign,  in  all  cases,  a  legal  cause ;  and 
a  husband  must  be  especially  sagacious,  if  he  can  tell  whether  the 
true  cause  be  assigned  or  not.  This  safeguard  to  married  chasti- 
ty, therefore,  to  which  the  gentlemen  of  the  Typographical  Com- 
mittee seem  to  look  with  so  implicit  a  confidence,  is  a  mere  broken 
reed ;  and  has  been  so,  ever  since  the  days  of  Bathsheba. 

Yet  conjugal  chastity  is  that  which  is  especially  valued.  The 
inconstancy  of  a  wife  commonly  cuts  much  deeper  than  the  dis- 
honour of  a  sister.  In  that  case,  then,  which  the  world  usually 
considers  of  the  highest  importanoe,  the  fear  of  offspring  imposes 
no  check  whatever.  It  cannot  make  one  iota  of  difference  whether 
a  married  woman  be  knowing  in  physiology  or  not ;  except  per- 
haps, indeed,  to  the  husband's  advantage ;  in  cases  where  the 
wife's  conscience  induces  her  at  least  to  guard  against  the  possi- 
bility of  burthening  her  legal  lord  with  the  care  and  support  of 
children  that  are  not  his.  Constancy,  where  it  actually  exists, 
is  the  offspring  of  something  more  efficacious  than  ignorance. 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  49 

That  chastity  which  is  worth  preserving  is  not  the 
chastity  that  owes  its  birth  to  fear  and  to  ignorance.  If 
to  enlighten  a  woman  regarding  a  simple  physiological 
feet  will  make  her  a  prostitute,  she  mast  be  especially 
predisposed  to  profligacy.  But  it  is  a  libel  on  the  sex. 
Few,  indeed,  there  are,  who  would  continue  so  miserable 
and  degrading  a  calling,  could  they  but  escape  from  it. 
For  one  prostitute  that  is  made  by  inclination,  ten  are 
made  by  necessity.  Reform  the  laws — equalize  the 
comforts  of  society,  and  you  need  withhold  no  knowledge 
from  your  wives  and  daughters.  It  is  want,  not  know- 
ledge, that  leads  to  prostitution. 

For  myself,  I  would  withhold  from  no  sister,  or  daugh- 
ter, or  wife  of  mine,  any  ascertained  fact  whatever.  It 
should  be  to  me  a  duty  and  a  pleasure  to  communicate 
to  them  all  I  knew  myself:  and  I  should  hold  it  an  in- 
sult to  their  understandings  and  their  hearts  to  imagine, 
that  their  virtue  would  diminish  as  their  knowledge  in- 
creased. Vice  is  never  the  offspring  of  just  knowledge  ; 
and  they  who  say  it  is,  slander  their  own  nature. 
Would  we  but  trust  human  nature,  instead  of  con- 
tinually suspecting  it,  and  guarding  it  by  bolts  and  bars, 
and  thinking  to  make  it  very  chaste  by  keeping  it  very 
ignorant,  what  a  different  world  we  should  have  of  it ! 

And  if  in  the  wife's  case,  men  must  and  do  trust  to  something 
else,  why  not  in  all  other  cases,  where  restraint  may  be  consider- 
ed desirable  V  Shall  men  trust  in  the  greater,  and  fear  to  trust 
in  the  less  ?  Whatever  any  one  may  choose  to  assert  regarding 
his  relatives'  secret  inclinations  to  profligacy,  these  arguments 
may  convince  him,  that  if  he  has  any  safeguard  at  present,  a  pe- 
rusal of  Moral  Physiology  will  not  destroy  it. 

'Tis  strange  that  men,  by  way  of  suborning  an  argument, 
should  be  willing  thus  to  vilify  their  relatives'  character  and  mo- 
tives, without  first  carefully  examining  whether  any  thing  was 
gained  to  their  cause,  after  all,  by  the  vilification. 


50  MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY. 

The  virtue  of  ignorance  is  a  sickly  plant,  ever  exposed 
to  the  caterpillar  of  corruption,  liable  to  be  scorched  and 
blasted  even  by  the  free  light  of  heaven ;  of  precarious 
growth  ;  and,  even  if  at  last  artificially  matured,  of  little 
or  no  real  value. 

I  know  that  parents  often  think  it  right  and  proper  to 
withhold  from  their  children — especially  from  their  daugh- 
ters— facts  the  most  influential  on  their  future  lives,  and 
the  knowledge  of  which  is  essential  to  every  man  and 
woman's  well-being.*  Such  a  course  has  ever  appeared 
to  me  ill-judged  and  productive  of  very  injurious  effects. 
A  girl  is  surely  no  whit  the  better  for  believing,  until  her 
marriage  night,  that  children  are  found  among  the  cab- 
bage leaves  in  the  garden.  The  imagination  is  excited, 
the  curiosity  kept  continually  on  the  stretch ;  and  that 
which,  if  simply  explained,  would  have  been  recollected 
only  as  any  other  physiological  phenomenon,  assumes 
all  the  rank  and  importance  and  engrossing  interest  of 
a  mystery.  Nay,  I  am  well  convinced,  that  mere  curiosi- 
ty has  often  led  ignorant  young  people  into  situations, 
from  which  a  little  more  confidence  and  openness  on  the 
part  of  their  parents  or  guardians,  would  have  effectually 
secured  them. 

In  the  monkish  days  of  mental  darkness,  when  it  was 
taught  and  believed,  that  all  the  imaginations  and  all  the 

*  Instances  innumerable  might  be  adduced.  Not  one  young 
person,  for  example,  in  twenty,  is  ever  told,  that  sexual  intercourse 
during  the  period  of  a  woman's  courses  is  not  unfrequently  pro- 
ductive, to  the  woman  of  a  species  of  fluor  albus,  and  sometimes 
(as  a  consequent)  to  the  man  of  symptoms  very  similar  to  those 
of  syphilis,  but  more  easily  removed.  Yet  what  fact  more  im- 
portant to  be  communicated?  And  how  ridiculous  the  mis- 
chievously prudish  refinement  that  conceals  from  human  beings 
what  it  most  deeply  concerns  them  to  know  ? 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY*  51 

thoughts  of  man  are  only  evil  continually —when  it  was 
deemed  right  and  proper  to  secure  the  submission  of  the 
mass  by  withholding  from  them  the  knowledge  even  how 
to  read  and  write — in  those  days,  it  was  all  very  well  to 
shut  up  the  physiological  page,  and  tell  us,  that  on  the 
day  we  read  therein  we  should  surely  die.  But  those 
times  are  past.  In  this  nineteenth  century,  men  and 
women  read,  think,  discuss,  enquire,  judge  for  them- 
selves. If,  in  these  latter  days,  there  is  to  be  virtue  at 
all,  she  must  be  the  offspring  of  knowledge  and  of  free 
enquiry,  not  of  ignorance  and  mystery.  We  cannot 
prevent  the  spread  of  any  real  knowledge,  even  if  we 
would  ;  we  ought  not,  even  if  we  could. 

This  book  will  make  its  way  through  the  whole  Uni- 
ted States.  Curiosity  and  the  notoriety  which  has  al- 
ready been  given  to  the  subject,  will  suffice  at  first  to 
obtain  for  it  circulation.  The  practical  importance  of 
the  subject  it  treats  will  do  the  rest.  It  needed  but  some 
one  to  start  the  stone ;  its  own  momentum  will  suffice  to 
carry  it  forward. 

But,  if  we  could  prevent  the  circulation  of  truth,  why 
should  we  ?  We  are  not  afraid  of  it  ourselves.  No 
man  thinks  his  morality  will  suffer  by  it.  Each  feels 
certain  that  his  virtue  can  stand  any  degree  of  know- 
ledge. And  is  it  not  the  height  of  egregious  presump- 
tion in  each  to  imagine  that  his  neighbour  is  so  much 
weaker  than  himself,  and  requires  a  bandage  which  he 
can  do  without?  Most  of  all,  is  it  presumptuous  to  sup- 
pose, that  that  knowledge  which  the  man  of  the  world 
can  bear  with  impunity,  will  corrupt  the  young  and  the 
pure-hearted.  It  is  the  sullied  conscience  only  that 
suggests  such  fears.  Trust  youth  and  innocence. 
Speak  to  them  openly.  Show  them  that  you  respect 
them,  by  treating  them  with  confidence ;  and  they  will 


52  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

quickly  learn  to  respect  and  to  govern  themselves.  You 
enlist  even  their  pride  in  your  behalf;  and  you  will 
soon  see  them  make  it  their  boast  and  their  highest 
pleasure  to  merit  your  confidence.  But  watch  them, 
and  show  your  suspicion  of  them  but  once — and  you  are 
the  jailor,  who  will  keep  his  prisoners  just  as  long  as 
bars  and  bolts  shall  prevent  their  escape.  The  world 
was  never  made  for  a  prison-house  ;  it  is  too  large  and 
ill-guarded  :  nor  were  parents  ever  intended  for  goal- 
keepers ;  their  very  affections  unfit  them  for  the  task. 

There  is  no  more  beautiful  sight  upon  earth,  than  a 
family  among  whom  there  are  110  secrets  and  no  re- 
serves ;  where  the  young  people  confide  every  thing  to 
their  elder  friends — for  such  to  them  are  their  parents — 
and  where  the  parents  trust  every  thing  to  their  chil- 
dren ;  where  each  thought  is  communicated  as  freely 
as  it  arises  ;  and  all  knowledge  given,  as  simply  as  it  is 
received.  If  the  world  contain  a  prototype  of  that  Para- 
dise, where  nature  is  said  to  have  known  no  sin  or  im- 
propriety, it  is  such  a  family.  And  if  there  be  a  serpent 
that  can  poison  the  innocence  of  its  inmates,  that  'ser- 
pent is  SUSPICION. 

I  ask  no  greater  pleasure  than  thus  to  be  the  guar- 
dian and  companion  of  young  beings  whose  innocence 
shall  speak  to  me  as  unreservedly  as  it  thinks  to  itself; 
of  young  beings  who  shall  never  imagine  that  there  is 
guilt  in  their  thoughts,  or  sin  in  their  confidence  ;  and  to 
whom,  in  return,  I  may  impart  every  important  and 
useful  fact  that  is  known  to  myself.  Their  virtue  shall 
be  of  that  hardy  growth,  which  all  facts  tend  to  nourish 
and  strengthen. 

I  put  it  to  my  readers,  whether  such  a  view  of  human 
nature,  and  such  a  mode  of  treating  it,  be  not  in  accord- 
ance with  the  noblest  feelings  of  their  hearts.  I  put  it 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  53 

to  them,  whether  they  have  not  felt  themselves  encoura- 
ged, improved,  strengthened  in  every  virtuous  resolu- 
tion, when  they  were  generously  trusted ;  and  whether 
they  have  not  felt  abased  and  degraded,  when  they 
were  suspiciously  watched,  and  spied  after,  and  kept  in 
ignorance.  If  they  find  such  feelings  in  their  own 
hearts,  let  them  not  self-righteously  imagine,  that  they 
only  can  be  \von  by  generosity,  or  that  the  nature  of 
their  fellow-creatures  is  different  from  their  own. 

There  are  other  considerations  connected  with  this 
subject,  which  farther  attest  the  social  advantages  of 
the  control  I  advocate.  Human  affections  are  mutable, 
and  the  sincerest  of  mortal  resolutions  may  change.* 
Every  day  furnishes  instances  of  alienations,  and  of 
separations  ;  sometimes  almost  before  the  honey-moon 
is  well  expired.  In  such  cases  of  unsuitability,  it  can- 
not be  considered  desirable  that  there  should  be  offspring ; 
and  the  power  of  refraining  from  becoming  parents  until 
intimacy  had,  in  a  measure,  established  the  likelihood 
of  permanent  harmony  of  views  and  feelings,  must  be 
confessed  to  be  advantageous. 

The  limits  which  my  numerous  avocations  prescribe 
to  this  little  treatise,  permit  me  not  to  meet  every  argu- 
ment in  detail,  which  ingenuity  or  prejudice  might  put 
forward.  If  the  world  were  not  actually  afraid  to  think 
freely  or  to  listen  to  the  suggestions  of  common  sense, 
three  fourths  of  what  has  already  been  said  would  be 
superfluous  ;  for  most  of  the  arguments  employed  would 

*  Le  premier  serment  que  se  firent  deux  £tres  de  chair,  ce  fut 
au  pied  d'un  rocher,  qui  tombait  en  poussiere ;  ils  attesterent  de 
leur  Constance  un  ciel  qui  n'est  pas  un  instant  le  m£me :  tout  pas- 
salt  en  eux,  et  autour  d'eux ;  et  ils  croyaient  leurs  cceurs  affran- 
chis  de  vicissitudes.  O  enfans !  toujours  enfans ! 

DIDEROT  ;  Jacques  et  son  mattre. 

5* 


54  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

occur  spontaneously  to  any  rational,  reasoning  being, 
But  the  mass  of  mankind  have  still,  in  a  measure,  every 
thing  to  learn  on  this  subject.  The  world  seems  to  me 
much  to  resemble  a  company  of  gourmands,  who  sit 
down  to  a  plentiful  repast,  first  very  punctiliously  saying 
grace  over  it ;  and  then,  under  sanction  of  the  priest's 
blessing,  think  to  gorge  themselves  with  impunity  ;  as 
conceiving,  that  gluttony  after  grace  is  no  sin.  So  it  is 
with  popular  customs  and  popular  morality.  Every 
thing  is  permitted,  if  external  forms  be  but  respected. 
Legal  roguery  is  no  crime,  and  ceremony-sanctioned  ex- 
cess no  profligacy.  The  substance  is  sacrificed  to  the 
form,  the  virtue  to  the  outward  observance.  The  world 
troubles  its  head  little  about  whether  a  man  be  honest 
or  dishonest,  so  he  knows  how  to  avoid  the  penitentiary 
and  escape  the  hangman.  In  like  manner,  the  world 
seldom  thinks  it  worth  while  to  enquire  whether  a  man 
be  temperate  or  intemperate,  prudent  or  thoughtless.  It 
takes  especial  care  to  inform  itself  whether  in  all  things 
he  conforms  to  orthodox  requirements ;  and,  if  he  does, 
all  is  right.  Thus  men  too  often  learn  to  consider  an 
oath  an  absolution  from  all  subsequent  decencies  and 
duties,  and  a  full  release  from  all  after  responsibilities. 
If  a  husband  maltreat  his  wife,  the  offence  is  venal ; 
for  he  premised  it  by  making  her,  at  the  altar,  an  "honest 
woman."  If  a  married  father  neglect  his  children,  it  is 
a  trifle ;  for  grace  was  regularly  said,  before  they  were 
born. 

So  true  is  this,  that  if  some  heterodox  moralist  were  to 
throw  out  the  idea,  that  many  of  the  rudenesses  and 
jarrings,  and  much  of  the  indifference  and  carelessness 
of  each  others'  feelings  that  is  exhibited  in  married  life, 
might  be  traced  to  the  almost  universal  custom  (in  this 
country,  though  not  in  France)  of  man  and  wife  con- 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 


55 


tinually  occupying  the  same  bed— if  he  put  it  to  us 
whether  such  a  forced  and  too  frequent  familiarity  were 
not  calculated  to  lessen  the  charms  and  pleasures,  and 
diminish  the  respectful  regard  and  deference,  which 
ought  ever  to  characterize  the  intercourse  of  human 
beings — if,  I  say.  some  heretical  preferrer  of  things  to 
forms  were  to  light  upon  and  express  some  such  unlucky 
idea  as  this,  ten  to  one  the  married  portion  of  the  com- 
munity would  fall  upon  him  without  mercy,  as  an  im- 
pertinent intermeddler  in  their  most  legitimate  rights  and 
prerogatives. 

With  such  a  world  as  this,  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to 
reason.  After  listening  to  all  I  have  said,  it  may  per- 
haps cut  me  short  by  reminding  me,  that  nature  herself 
declares  it  to  be  right  and  proper,  that  we  should  repro- 
duce our  species  without  calculation  or  restraint.  I 
will  ask,  in  reply,  whether  nature  also  declares  it  to 
be  right  and  proper,  that,  when  the  thermometer  is  at 
96,  we  should  drink  greedily  of  cold  water,  and  drop 
down  dead  in  the  streets  ?  Let  the  world  be  told,  that 
if  nature  gave  us  our  passions  and  propensities,  she 
gave  us  also  the  power  wisely  to  control  them ;  and 
that,  when  we  hesitate  to  exercise  that  power,  we  de- 
scend to  a  level  with  the  brute  creation,  and  become 
the  sport  of  fortune — the  mere  slaves  of  circumstance.* 

*  Some  German  poet,  whose  name  has  escaped  me,  says, 
"  Tapfer  1st  der  Lowensieger, 
Tapfer  is  der  Weltbezwinger, 
Tapferer,  wer  sich  selhst  bezwang !" 

"  Brave  is  the  lion-victor, 
Brave  the  conqueror  of  a  world, 
Braver,  he  who  controls  himself!" 

It  is  a  noble  sentiment,  and  very  appropriate  to  the  present  dis- 
cussion. 


56  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

To  one  other  argument  it  were  not,  perhaps,  worth 
while  to  advert,  but  that  it  has  been  already  speciously 
used  to  excite  popular  prejudice.  It  has  been  said,  that 
to  recommend  to  mankind  prudential  restraint  in  cases 
where  children  cannot  be  provided  for,  is  an  insult  to 
the  poor  man ;  since  all  ought  to  be  so  circumstanced 
that  they  might  provide  amply  for  the  largest  family. 
Most  assuredly  all  ought  to  be  so  circumstanced  ;  but  all 
are  not.  And  there  would  be  just  as  much  propriety  in 
bidding  a  poor  man  go  and  take  by  force  a  piece  of  Saxo- 
ny broadcloth  from  his  neighbour's  store,  because  he 
ought  to  be  able  to  purchase  it,  as  to  encourage  him  to 
go  on  producing  children,  because  he  ought  to  have 
wherewithal  to  support  them.  Let  us  exert  every  nerve 
to  correct  the  injustice  and  arrest  the  misery  that  results 
from  a  vicious  order  of  things  ;  but,  until  we  have  done 
so,  let  us  not,  for  humanity's  sake,  madly  recommend 
that  which  grievously  aggravates  the  evil ;  which  in- 
creases the  burden  on  the  present  generation,  and 
threatens  with  neglect  and  ignorance  the  next. 

And  now,  let  my  readers  pause.  Let  them  review 
the  various  arguments  I  have  placed  before  them.  Let 
them  reflect  how  intimately  the  instinct  of  which  I  treat 
is  connected  with  the  social  welfare  of  society.  Let  them 
bear  in  mind,  that  just  in  proportion  to  its  social  influ- 
ence, is  it  important  that  we  should  know  how  to  con- 
trol and  govern  it ;  that,  when  we  obtain  such  control, 
we  may  save  ourselves — and,  what  we  ought  to  prize 
much  more  highly,  may  save  our  companions  and  our 
offspring,  from  suffering  or  misery  ;  that,  by  such  know- 
ledge, the  young  may  form  virtuous  connexions,  instead 
of  becoming  profligates  or  ascetics ;  that,  by  it,  early 
marriage  is  deprived  of  its  heaviest  consequences,  and 
seduction  of  its  sharpest  sting  ;  that,  by  it,  man  may  be 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  57 

saved  from  moral  ruin,  and  woman  from  desolating  dis- 
honour; that  by  it  the  first  pure  affections  may  be  sooth- 
ed and  satisfied,  instead  of  being  thwarted  or  destroyed — - 
let  them  call  to  mind  all  this,  and  then  let  them  say, 
whether  the  possession  of  such  control  be  not  a  blessing 
to  man. 


58  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  SUBJECT  CONSIDERED    IN   ITS  IMMEDIATE    CON- 
NEXION WITH  PHYSIOLOGY. 

It  now  remains,  after  having  spoken  of  the  desirabili- 
ty of  obtaining  control  over  the  instinct  of  reproduction,  to 
speak  of  its  practicability. 

As,  in  this  world,  the  value  of  labour  is  too  often  esti- 
mated almost  in  proportion  to  its  inutility,  so,  in  physical 
science,  contested  questions  seem  to  have  attracted  at- 
tention and  engaged  research,  almost  in  the  inverse  ratio 
of  their  practical  importance.  We  have  a  hundred  learn- 
ed hypotheses  for  one  decisive  practical  experiment.  We 
have  many  thousands  of  volumes  written  to  explain  fan- 
ciful theories,  and  scarcely  as  many  dozens  to  record  as- 
certained facts. 

It  is  not  my  intention,  in  discussing  this  branch  of 
the  subject,  to  examine  the  hundred  ingenious  theories 
of  generation  which  ancient  and  modern  physiologists 
have  put  forth.  I  shall  not  enquire  whether  the  fu- 
ture human  being  owes  its  first  existence,  as  Hippo- 
crates and  Galen  asserted,  and  Buffon  very  ingeniously 
supports,  to  the  union  of  two  life-giving  fluids,  each  a 
sort  of  extract  of  the  body  of  $ie  parent,  and  composed 
of  organic  particles  similar  to  the  future  offspring ;  or 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY*  59 

xvhether,  as  Harvey  and  Haller  teach,  the  embryo  reposes 
in  the  ovum  until  vivified  by  the  seminal  fluid,  or  perhaps 
only  by  the  aura  seminalis  ;  or  whether,  according  to 
the  theories  of  Leuvenhoeck  and  Boerhaave,  the  future 
man  first  exists  as  a  spermatic  animalcula,  for  which 
the  ovum  becomes  merely  the  nourishing  receptacle  ;  or 
whether,  as  the  ingenious  Andry  imagines,  a  vivifying 
worm  be  the  more  correct  hypothesis  ;  or  whether,  final- 
ly, as  Perault  will  have  it,*  the  embryo  beings  (too  won- 
derfully organized  to  be  supposed  the  production  of  any 
mere  physical  phenomenon)  must  be  imagined  to  come 
directly  from  the  hands  of  the  Creator,  who  has  filled  the 
universe  with  these  little  germs,  too  minute,  indeed,  to 
exercise  all  the  animal  functions,  but  still  self-existent, 
and  awaiting  only  the  insinuation  of  some  subtle  essence 
into  their  microscopic  pores,  to  come  forth  as  human  be- 
ings. Still  less  am  I  inclined  to  follow  Hippocrates  and 
Tertullian  in  their  enquiries,  whether  the  soul  is  merely 
introduced  into  the  foetus,  or  pre-exists  in  the  semen,  and 
becomes,  as  it  were,  the  architect  of  its  future  residence, 
the  body  ;t  or  to  attempt  a  refutation  of  the  hypothesis 
of  the  metaphysical  naturalist,  t  who  asserts,  (and  adduces 
the  infinite  indivisibility  of  matter  in  support  of  the  as- 
sertion,) that  the  actual  germs  of  the  whole  human  race, 
and  of  all  that  are  yet  to  be  born,  existed  in  the  ovaria 
of  our  first  mother,  Eve.  I  leave  these  and  fifty  other 
hypotheses  as  ingenious  and  as  useless,  to  be  discussed  by 

*  See  "  Histoire  de  P Academic  des  Sciences,"  for  the  year  1679, 
page  279. 

t  Hippocrates  positively  asserts  this  latter  hypothesis,  and  is 
outrageous  against  all  sceptics  in  his  theory.  In  his  work  on 
diet,  he  tells  us,  "  Si  quis  non  credat  animam  animcz  misceri, 
demens  est."  Tertullian  warmly  supports  the  orthodoxy  of  this 
opinion. 

J  Bonner,  I  believe. 


60  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY* 

those  who  seem  to  make  it  a  point  of  honour  to  leave  no 
fact  unexplained  by  some  imagined  theory ;  and  I  de- ' 
scend  at  once  to  the  terra  firma  of  positive  experience 
and  actual  observation. 

It  is  exceedingly  to  be  regretted  that  mankind  did  not 
spend  some  small  portion,  at  least,  of  the  time  and  in- 
dustry which  has  been  wasted  on  theoretical  researches, 
in  collecting  and  collating  the  actual  experience  of  hu- 
man beings.  But  this  task,  too  difficult  for  the  ignorant, 
has  generally  been  thought  too  simple  and  common- 
place for  the  learned.  To  this  circumstance,  joined  to 
the  fact,  that  it  is  not  thought  fitting  or  decent  for  hu- 
man beings  freely  to  communicate  their  personal  expe- 
rience on  the  important  subject  now  under  considera- 
tion— to  these  causes  are  attributable  the  great  arid  other- 
wise unaccountable  ignorance  which  so  strangely  pre- 
vails, even  sometimes  among  medical  men,  as  to  the 
power  which  man  may  possess  over  the  reproductive  in- 
stinct. Many  physicians  will  positively  deny  that  man 
possesses  any  such  power.  And  yet,  if  the  thousandth 
part  of  the  talent  and  research  had  been  employed  to  in- 
vestigate this  momentous  fact,  which  has  been  turned 
to  the  building  up  of  idle  theories,  no  commonly  intelli- 
gent individual  could  well  be  ignorant  of  the  truth. 

I  have  taken  great  pains  to  ascertain  the  opinions  of 
the  most  enlightened  physicians  of  Great  Britain  and 
France  on  this  subject ;  (opinions  which  popular  preju- 
dice will  not  permit  them  to  offer  publicly  in  their  works ;) 
and  they  all  concur  in  admitting,  what  the  experience  of 
the  French  nation  positively  proves,  that  man  may 
have  a  perfect  control  over  this  instinct ;  and  that  men 
and  women  may,  without  any  injury  to  health,  or  the 
slightest  violence  done  to  the  moral  feelings,  and  with 
but  small  diminution  of  the  pleasure  which  accompanies 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  61 

the  gratification  of  the  instinct,  refrain  at  will  from  be- 
coming parents.  It  has  chanced  to  me,  also,  to  win  the 
confidence  of  several  individuals,  who  have  communica- 
ted to  me,  without  reserve,  their  own  experience ;  and 
all  this  has  been  corroborative  of  the  same  opinion. 

Thus,  though  I  pretend  not  to  speak  positively  to  the 
details  of  a  subject,  which  will  then  only  be  fully  un- 
derstood when  men  acquire  sense  enough  simply  and 
unreservedly  to  discuss  it,  I  may  venture  to  assure  my 
readers,  that  the  main  fact  is  incontrovertible.  I  shall 
adduce  such  facts  in  proof  of  this  as  may  occur  to  me  in 
the  course  of  this  investigation. 

However  various  and  contradictory  the  different  theo- 
ries of  generation,  almost  all  physiologists  are  agreed, 
that  the  entrance  of  the  sperm  itself  (or  of  some  volatile 
particles  proceeding  from  it)  into  the  uterus,  must  precede 
conception.  This  it  was  that  probably  first  suggested 
the  possibility  of  preventing  conception  at  will. 

Among  the  modes  of  preventing  conception  which  may 
have  prevailed  in  various  countries,  that  which  has  been 
adopted,  and  is  now  universally  practised,  by  the  cultiva- 
ted classes  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  by  the  French,  the 
Italians,  and,  I  believe,  by  the  Germans  and  Spaniards, 
consists  of  complete  withdrawal,  on  the  part  of  the  man, 
immediately  previous  to  emission.  This  is:  in  all  cases ^ 
effectual.  It  may  be  objected,  that  the  practice  requires 
a  mental  effort  and  a  partial  sacrifice.  I  reply,  that,  in 
France,  where  men  consider  this,  (as  it  ought  ever  to  be 
considered,  when  the  interests  of  the  other  sex  require  it,) 
a  point  of  honour — all  young  men  learn  to  make  the 
necessary  effort ;  and  custom  renders  it  easy  and  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  As  for  the  sacrifice,  shall  a  trifling  (and 
it  is  but  a  very  trifling)  diminution  of  physical  enjoy- 

6 


62  MO&AL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

nient  be  suffered  to  outweigh  the  most  important  con- 
siderations connected  with  the  permanent  welfare  of 
those  who  are  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  us  ?  Shall  it 
be  suffered  to  outweigh  the  risk  of  incurring  heavy  and 
sacred  responsibilities,  ere  we  are  prepared  to  meet  and 
fulfil  them  ?  Shall  it  be  suffered  to  outweigh  a  regard 
for  the  comfort,  the  well-being — in  some  cases  the  life, 
of  those  whom  we  profess  to  love  ?  The  most  selfish 
will  hesitate  deliberately  to  reply,  in  the  affirmative,  to 
such  questions  as  these.  A  cultivated  young  French- 
man, instructed  as  he  is,  even  from  his  infancy,  careful- 
ly to  consult,  on  all  occasions,  the  wishes,  and  punc- 
tiliously to  care  for  the  comfort  and  welfare,  of  the  gentler 
sex,  would  learn  almost  with  incredulity,  that,  in  other 
countries,  there  are  men  to  be  found,  pretending  to  cul- 
tivation, who  were  less  scrupulously  honourable  on  this 
point  than  himself.  You  could  not  offer  him  a  greater 
insult  than  to  presuppose  the  possibility  of  his  forgetting 
himself  so  far,  as  thus  to  put  his  own  momentary  gratifi- 
cation, for  an  instant,  in  competition  with  the  wish  or 
the  well-being  of  any  one  to  whom  he  professed  regard 
or  affection.* 

I  know  it  will  be  argued,  that  men  in  the  mass  are 

*  A  Frenchman  belonging  to  the  cultivated  classes,  would  as 
soon  bear  to  be  called  a  coward,  as  to  be  accused  of  causing  the 
pregnancy  of  a  woman,  who  did  not  desire  it ;  and  that,  too,  whe- 
ther the  matrimonial  law  had  given  him  legal  rights  over  her  per- 
son or  not.  Such  an  imputation,  if  substantiated,  would  shut  him 
out  for  ever  from  all  decent  society ;  and  most  properly  so.  It  is 
a  perfect  barbarity,  and  ought  to  be  treated  as  such. 

When  we  begin  to  look  to  genuine  morality,  instead  of  empty 
or  offensive  forms,  these  are  the  principles  of  honour  we  shall  im- 
plant in  our  children's  minds :  and  then  we  shall  have  a  world 
.of  courtesy  and  kindness,  instead  of  a  scene  of  legal  outrage,  or 
hypocritical  profession. 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY*  63 

not  sufficiently  moral  to  adopt  this  recommendation ; 
because  they  will  not  make  any  voluntary  sacrifice  of 
animal  enjoyment,  however  trifling.  I  do  not  see  that. 
Hundreds  of  voluntary  sacrifices  are  daily  made  to  fa- 
shion— to  public  opinion.  Let  but  public  opinion  bear 
on  this  point  in  other  countries,  as  it  does  among  the 
more  enlightened  classes  in  France,  and  similar  effects 
will  be  produced. 

Besides,  the  matter  is  a  trifle.  The  mere  act  of  ani- 
mal satisfaction,  counts  with  any  man  of  commonly  cul- 
tivated feelings,  as  but  a  small  item  in  the  aggregate  of 
enjoyment  which  satisfied  affection  affords  ;  and,  surely, 
whether  that  act  be  at  all  times  attended  with  the  utmost 
degree  of  physical  pleasure  or  not,  must,  even  with  the 
selfish,  be  a  secondary  and  unimportant  consideration. 
His  moral  sentiments  must  be  especially  weak  or  uncul- 
tivated, who  will  not  admit,  that  it  is  the  gratification  of 
the  social  feelings — the  repose  of  the  affections — which, 
at  all  times,  constitutes  the  chief  charm  of  human  in- 
tercourse. 

The  least  injurious  among  the  present  checks  to  popu- 
lation, celibacy,  is  a  mortification  of  the  affections,  a  vio- 
lence done  to  the  social  feelings,  sometimes  a  sacrifice 
even  of  the  health.  Not  one  of  these  objections  can  be 
urged  to  the  trifling  restraint  proposed. 

As  to  the  cry  which  prejudice  may  raise  against  it  as 
being  unnatural,  it  is  just  as  unnatural  (and  no  more  so) 
as  to  refrain,  in  a  sultry  summer's  day,  from  drinking, 
perhaps,  more  than  a  pint  of  water  at  a  draught,  which 
prudence  tells  us  is  enough,  while  inclination  would  bid 
us  drink  a  quart.  All  thwarting  of  any  human  wish  or 
impulse  may,  in  one  sense,  be  called  unnatural ;  it  is 
not,  however,  ofttimes  the  less  prudent  and  proper,  on 
that  account. 


64  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 

As  to  the  practical  efficacy  of  this  simple  preventive^ 
the  experience  of  France,  where  it  is  universally  prac- 
tised, might  suffice  in  proof.  I  know,  at  this  moment, 
several ,  married  persons  who  have  told  me,  that,  after 
having  had  as  many  children  as  they  thought  prudent, 
they  had  for  years  employed  this  check,  with  perfect 
success.  For  the  satisfaction  of  my  readers,  I  will  select 
one  particular  instance. 

I  knew  personally  and  intimately  for  many  years  a 
young  man  of  strict  honour,  in  whose  sincerity  I  ever 
placed  perfect  confidence,  and  who  confided  to  me  the 
particulars  of  his  situation.  He  was  just  entering  on  life, 
with  slender  means,  and  his  circumstances  forbade  him 
to  have  a  large  family  of  children.  He,  therefore,  having 
consulted  with  his  young  wife,  practised  this  restraint,  I 
believe  for  about  eighteen  months,  and  with  perfect  suc- 
cess. At  the  expiration  of  that  period,  their  situation  be- 
ing more  favourable,  they  resolved  to  become  parents ;  and, 
in  a  fortnight  after,  the  wife  found  herself  pregnant. 
My  friend  told  me,  that  though  he  felt  the  partial  priva- 
tion a  little  at  first,  a  few  weeks'  habit  perfectly  reconciled 
him  to  it ;  and  that  nothing  but  a  deliberate  conviction 
that  he  might  prudently  now  become  a  ^parent,  and  a 
strong  desire  on  his  wife's  part  to  have  a  child,  induced 
him  to  alter  his  first  practice.  1  believe  I  was  the  only 
one  among  his  friends  to  whom  he  ever  communicated 
the  real  state  of  the  case  :  and  I  doubt  not  there  are,  even 
in  this  country,  hundreds  of  similar  cases  which  the 
world  never  learns  any  thing  about.  Hence  the  doubts 
and  ignorance  which  exist  on  the  subject. 

I  add  another  instance.  A  few  weeks  since,  a  re- 
spectable and  very  intelligent  father  of  a  family,  about 
thirty-five  years  of  age,  who  resides  west  of  the  moun- 
j  called  at  our  office.  Conversation  turned  on  the 


MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY.  65 

present  subject,  and  I  expressed  to  him  my  conviction, 
that  this  check  was  effectual.  He  told  me  he  could  speak 
from  personal  experience.  He  had  married  young,  and 
soon  had  three  children.  These  he  could  support  in 
comfort,  without  running  into  debt  or  difficulty ;  but, 
the  price  of  produce  sinking  in  his  neighbourhood,  there 
did  not  appear  a  fair  prospect  of  supporting  a  large  fami- 
ly. In  consequence,  he  and  his  wife  determined  to 
limit  their  offspring  to  three.  They  have  accordingly 
employed  the  above  check  for  seven  or  eight  years ;  have 
had  no  more  children ;  and  have  been  rewarded  for  their 
prudence  by  finding  their  situation  and  prospects  im- 
proving every  year.  He  confirmed  an  opinion  I  have 
already  expressed,  by  stating,  that  custom  completely 
reconciled  him  to  any  slight  privation  he  might  at  first 
have  felt.  I  asked  him,  whether  his  neighbours  gene- 
rally followed  the  same  practice.  He  replied,  that  he 
could  not  tell ;  for  he  had  not  thought  it  prudent  to  speak 
with  any  but  his  own  relations  on  the  subject,  one  or 
two  of  whom,  he  knew,  had  profited  by  his  advice,  and 
afterwards  expressed  to  him  their  gratitude  for  the  im- 
portant information. 

It  is  unnecessary  farther  to  multiply  instances.  The 
fact  that  this  check  is  in  common  practice,  and  univer- 
sally known  to  be  efficacious,  in  France,  is  alone  suffi- 
cient evidence  of  its  practicability  and  safety. 

I  can  readily  imagine,  that  there  are  men,  who, « in 
part  from  temperament,  but  much  more  from  the  con- 
tinued habit  of  unrestrained  indulgence,  may  have  so 
little  command  over  their  passions,  as  to  find  difficulty 
in  practising  it ;  and  some,  it  may  be,  who  will  declare 
it  to  be  impossible.  If  any  there  be  to  whom  it  is  im- 
possible, (which  I  very  much  doubt,)  I  am  at  least  con- 
vinced that  the  number  is  exceedingly  small;  not  a 

6* 


66  MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY. 

fiftieth  part  of  those  who  may  at  first  imagine  such  to 
be  their  case. 

I  may  add,  that  partial  withdrawal,  though  recom- 
mended in  a  letter  published  in  Carlile's  Republican,  is 
not  an  infallible  preventive  of  conception. 

Other  modes  of  prevention  have  been  employed,*  but 
this  is  at  once  the  most  simple,  and  the  most  efficacious ; 
the  only  one,  or  nearly  so,  employed  by  the  cultivated 
among  European  nations ;  and  the  only  one  I  here 
venture  to  recommend.  From  all  I  have  heard,  as 
well  from  physicians  as  from  private  individuals,  it  is,  as 
regards  health,  at  the  least,  perfectly  innocent :  it  has 
been  even  said  to  produce  upon  the  human  system  an 
effect  similar  to  that  of  temperance  in  diet ;  but  whether 
there  be  truth  in  this  hypothesis  I  know  not.  As  re- 
regards  any  moral  impropriety  in  its  use,  enough,  me- 
thinks,  has  already  been  said,  to  convince  all  except 
those  who  will  not  be  convinced,  that  to  employ  it,  in 
all  cases  where  prudence  or  the  well-being  of  our  com- 
panions requires  it,  is  an  act  of  practical  virtue. 

It  may  be  said,  and  said  truly,  that  this  check  places 
the  power  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  man,  and  not, 


*  One  of  these  modes,  that  of  the  sponge,  is  particularly  recommend- 
ed in  Carlile's  "  Every  Woman's  Book."  I  do  not  allude  to  it  in  the 
text :  because  I  believe  it  to  be  of  doubtful  efficacy  ;  and,  more  certainly, 
physically  disagreeable  in  its  effects  ;  and  because  I  feel  convinced,  that 
the  selfish  of  either  sex  will  adopt  no  expedient,  while  the  well-disposed 
will  adopt  the  best  in  preference.  Carlile  supposes  this  to  be  the  check 
common  among  the  cultivated  classes  in  France.  In  this  he  is  mistaken. 
It  is  not  employed,  and  scarcely  known  there.  Had  Carlile  had  an  op- 
portunity of  conversing  with  French  physicians,  he  would  have  satis- 
factorily ascertained  this  fact. 

I  also  pass  over  all  allusion  to  the  baudruche,  which  is  every  way  in- 
convenient, and  is  chiefly  used  to  guard  against  syphilis.  I  do  not  write 
to  facilitate,  but,  on  the  contrary,  effectually  to  prevent,  the  degrading 
intercourse  of  which  it  is  intended  to  obviate  the  penalty. 


MO&AL    PHYSIOLOGY,  67 

where  it  ought  to  be,  in  those  of  the  woman.  She,  who 
is  the  sufferer,  is  not  secured  against  the  culpable  care- 
lessness, or  perhaps  the  deliberate  selfishness,  of  him  who 
goes  free  and  unblamed,  whatever  may  happen.  To 
this,  the  reply  is,  that  the  best  and  only  effectual  defence 
for  women  is  to  refuse  connexion  with  any  man  void  of 
honour.  An  (almost  omnipotent)  public  opinion  would 
thus  be  speedily  formed  ;  one  of  immense  moral  utility, 
by  means  of  which  the  man's  social  reputation  would  be 
placed,  as  it  should  be,  in  the  keeping  of  women,  whose 
moral  tact  and  nice  discrimination  in  such  matters  is  far 
superiour  to  ours.  How  mighty  and  how  beneficent  the 
power  which  such  an  influence  might  exert,  and  how 
essentially  and  rapidly  it  might  conduce  to  the  gradual, 
but  thorough  extirpation  of  those  selfish  vices,  legal  and 
illegal,  which  now  disgrace  and  brutify  our  species,  it  is 
difficult  even  to  imagine. 

In  the  silent,  but  resistless  progress  of  human  im- 
provement, such  a  change  is  fortunately  inevitable.  We 
are  gradually  emerging  from  the  night  of  blind  prejudice 
and  of  brutal  force ;  and,  day  by  day,  rational  liberty 
and  cultivated  refinement,  win  an  accession  of  power. 
Yiolence  yields  to  benevolence,  compulsion  to  kindness, 
the  letter  of  law  to  the  spirit  of  justice  :  and,  day  by  day, 
men  and  women  become  more  willing,  and  better  pre- 
pared, to  entrust  the  most  sacred  duties  (social  as  well  as 
political)  more  to  good  feeling  and  less  to  idle  form — 
more  to  moral  and  less  to  legal  keeping. 

It  is  no  question  Avhether  such  reform  will  come :  no 
human  power  can  arrest  its  progress.  How  slowly  or 
how  rapidly  it  may  come,  is  a  question ;  and  depends, 
in  some  degree,  on  adventitious  circumstances.  Should 
this  little  book  prove  one  among  the  number  of  circum- 
stances to  accelerate,  however  slightly,  that  progress,  its 


68  MORAL    PHYSIOLOGY. 

author  will  be  repaid,  ten  times  over,  for  any  trifling  la- 
bour it  may  have  cost  him. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  useful  to  state  to  the  reader 
the  following  facts : — A  knowledge  of  this  and  other 
checks  to  population  has  been,  for  many  years,  exten- 
sively disseminated  in  most  of  the  populous  towns  in 
Great  Britain  ;  not  only  through  the  medium  of  "Every 
Woman's  Book,"  but,  previously  to  its  publication,  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  handbills,  which  were  gratui- 
tously distributed  from  benevolent  motives.  The  men 
who  were  first  instrumental  in  making  them  known  in 
England,  are  all  elderly  men,  fathers  of  families  of  chil- 
dren grown  up  to  be  men  and  women  ;  men  of  unim- 
peachable integrity,  and  of  first  rate  moral  character; 
many  of  them  men  of  science,  and  some  of  them  known 
as  the  first  political  economists  and  philanthropists  of  the 
age.  Besides  the  allusion  to  the  subject  already  given 
from  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  it  is  adverted  to  in 
Mill's  "  Elements  of  Political  Economy  ;"  in  Place's  "  Il- 
lustrations of  the  Principle  of  Population ;"  in  Thomp- 
son's "  Distribution  of  Wealth,"  and  probably  in  other 
works  with  which  I  am  unacquainted.  It  was  also 
(disguisedly)  broached  in  several  English  newspapers, 
and  was  preached  in  lectures  to  the  labouring  classes,  by 
a  most  benevolent  man,  at  Leeds.  I  do  not  believe  the 
subject  has  ever  been  touched  upon,  in  one  single  in- 
stance, except  by  men  of  irreproachable  moral  character, 
and  generally  of  high  standing  in  society.  The  chief 
difference  between  this  little  treatise,  and  the  allusions 
made  by  the  distinguished  authors  above  mentioned,  is, 
that  what  public  opinion  would  only  permit  them  to  in- 
sinuate, I  venture  to  say  plainly. 

My  readers  may  implicitly  depend  on  the  accuracy  of 


MORAL   PHYSIOLOGY,  69 

the  facts  I  have  stated.  Though,  in  the  present  state 
of  public  opinion,  I  may  not,  for  obvious  reasons,  give 
names  in  proof,  yet  it  is  evident  that  I  cannot  have  the 
shadow  of  a  motive  to  mislead  or  deceive.  I  shall  con- 
sider it  a  favour  if  any  individuals  who  can  adduce,/rom 
personal  experience^  facts  connected  with  this  subject, 
will  communicate  them  to  me. 


Note.  The  enlightened  Condorcet,  in  his  well-known  "  Esquisse 
des  progres  de  I 'esprit  humain,"  very  distinctly  alludes  to  the 
eafety  arid  facility  with  which  population  might  be  restrained,  "  if 
reason  should  but  keep  pace  with  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  if  the 
idle  prejudices  of  superstition  should  cease  to  shed  over  human 
morals  an  austerity  corrupting  and  degrading,  not  purifying  or 
elevating."  See  his  Esquisse,  pages  285  to  288,  Paris  Ed.  1822. 

Malthus  (see  his  "  Essays  on  Population,"  Book  3,  chap.  1) 
"  professes  not  to  understand"  the  French  philosopher.  No  French- 
man could  misunderstand  him. 


70  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  YII. 


CONCLUDING    REMARKS. 

That  most  practical  of  philosophers,  Franklin,  inter- 
prets chastity  to  mean,  the  regulated  and  strictly  tem- 
perate satisfaction^  without  injury  to  others,  of  those 
desires  which  are  natural  to  all  healthy  adult  beings. 
In  this  sense,  chastity  is  the  first  of  virtues,  and  one  most 
rarely  practised,  either  by  young  men  or  by  married  per- 
sons, even  when  the  latter  most  scrupulously  conform 
to  the  letter  of  the  law.  * 

The  promotion  of  such  chastity  is  the  chief  object  of 
the  present  work.  It  is  all-important  for  the  welfare  of 
our  race,  that  the  reproductive  instinct  should  never  be 
selfishly  indulged ;  never  gratified  at  the  expense  of  the 
well-being  of  our  companions.  A  man  who,  in  this 
matter,  will  not  consult,  with  scrupulous  deference,  the 
slightest  wishes  of  the  other  sex  ;  a  man  who  will  ever 
put  his  desires  in  competition  with  theirs,  and  who  will 
prize  more  highly  the  pleasure  he  receives  than  that  he 
may  be  capable  of  bestowing — such  a  man  appears  to 
me,  in  the  essentials  of  character,  a  brute.  The  brutes 
commonly  seek  the  satisfaction  of  their  propensities  with 
straight-forward  selfishness,  and  never  calculate  whether 
their  companions  are  gratified  or  teased  by  their  impor- 

*  My  father,  Robert  Owen's  definition  of  chastity  is  also  an  excellent 
one :  "  PROSTITUTION,  Sexual  intercourse  without  affection ;  CHA§TITY? 
Sexual  intercourse  with  affection. 


MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  71 

tunities.     Man  cannot  assimilate  his  nature  more  closely 
to  theirs,  than  by  imitating  them  in  this. 

Again.  There  is  no  instinct  in  regard  to  which  strict 
temperance  is  more  essential.  All  our  animal  desires 
have  hitherto  occupied  an  undue  share  of  human 
thoughts ;  but  none  more  generally  than  this.  The 
imaginations  of  the  young  and  the  passions  of  the  adult 
are  inflamed  by  mystery  or  excited  by  restraint,  and  a 
full  half  of  all  the  thoughts  and  intrigues  of  the  world 
has  a  direct  reference  to  this  single  instinct.  Even 
those  who,  like  the  Shakers,  "  crucify  the  flesh,"  are  not 
the  less  occupied  by  it  in  their  secret  thoughts ;  as  the 
Shaker  writings  themselves  may  afford  proof.  Neither 
human  institutions  nor  human  prejudices  can  destroy  the 
instinct.  Strange  it  is,  that  men  should  not  be  content 
rationally  to  control,  and  wisely  to  regulate  it. 

It  is  a  question  of  passing  importance,  "  How  may  it 
best  be  regulated  ?"  Not  by  a  Shaker  vow  of  monkish 
chastity.  Assuredly  not  by  the  world's  favourite  regula- 
tor, ignorance.  No.  Do  we  wish  to  bring  this  instinct 
under  easy  government,  and  to  assign  it  only  its  due 
rank  among  human  sentiments  ?  Then  let  us  culti- 
vate the  intellect,  let  us  exercise  the  body,  let  us  useful- 
ly occupy  the  time,  of  every  human  being.  What  is  it 
gives  to  passion  its  sway,  and  to  desires  their  empire, 
now  ?  It  is  vacancy  of  mind ;  it  is  listlessness  of  body  ; 
it  is  idleness.  A  cultivated  race  are  never  sensual ;  a 
hardy  race  are  seldom  love-sick ;  an  industrious  race 
have  no  time  to  be  sentimental.  Develope  the  moral 
sentiments,  and  they  will  govern  the  physical  instincts. 
Occupy  the  mind  and  body  usefully,  intellectually  ;  and 
the  propensities  will  obtain  that  care  and  time  only  which 
they  merit.  Upon  any  other  principle  we  may  doctor 
poor  human  nature  for  ever,  and  shall  only  prove  our- 


72  MORAL  PHYSIOLOGY* 

y 

selves  empirics  in  the  end.  Mortifications,  vestal  vows, 
mysteries,  bolts  and  bars,  prudish  prejudices — these  are 
all  quack-medicines ;  and  are  only  calculated  to  prostrate 
the  strength  and  spirits,  or  to  heighten  the  fever,  of  the 
patient.  If  we  will  dislodge  error  and  passion  from  the 
mind,  we  must  replace  them  by  something  better.  They 
say  that  a  vacuum  cannot  exist  in  nature.  Least  of  all 
can  it  exist  in  the  human  mind.  Empty  it  of  one  folly, 
cure  it  of  one  vice,  and  another  flows  in  to  fill  the  vacan- 
cy, unless  it  find  it  already  occupied  by  intellectual  ex- 
ercise and  common  sense. 

Husbands  and  fathers  !  study  Franklin's  definition  of 
chastity.  Your  fears,  your  jealousies,  have  hitherto  been 
on  the  stretch  to  watch  and  guard  :  reflect  whether  it  be 
not  pleasanter  and  better,  to  enlighten  and  trust. 

Honest  ascetics  !  you  have  striven  to  mortify  the 
flesh  ;  ask  yourselves  whether  it  be  not  wiser  to  control 
it.  You  have  sought  to  crucify  the  body;  consider 
whether  it  be  not  more  effectual  to  cultivate  the  mind. 
Have  you  succeeded  in  spiritualizing  your  secret 
thoughts  ?  If  not,  enquire  whether  all  human  propen- 
sities, duly  governed,  be  not  a  benefit  and  a  blessing  to 
the  nature  in  which  they  are  inherent. 

Human  beings,  of  whatever  sex  or  class  !  examine 
dispassionately  and  narrowly  the  influence  which  the 
control  here  recommended  will  produce  throughout  so- 
ciety. Reflect  whether  it  will  not  lighten  the  burdens 
of  one  sex,  while  it  affords  scope  for  the  exercise  of  the 
best  feelings  of  the  other.  Consider  whether  its  tenden- 
cy be  not  benignant  and  elevating ;  conducive  to  the 
exercise  of  practical  virtue,  and  to  the  permanent  welfare 
of  the  human  race. 

THE    END. 


APPENDIX 

TO  THE  FIFTH  EDITION. 


Reception  of  the  Work  by  the  Public.  Opinion  of  a  talented  Author.  Opinion  of 
a  Physician  and  Professor.  Letter  from  a  Mechanic.  The  work  never  intended 
as  a  political  Panacea.  Transmission  of  hereditary  disease.  Letter  on  the  sub- 
ject. Letter  from  a  French  gentleman.  Physiological  argument  in  favour  of 
temperance.  Experience  of  two  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Objection 
of  J,  W.  Objections  by  a  physician  of  Indiana.  Answer  to  them. 

New-York,  June  25,  1831. 

SEVEN  months  have  not  yet  elapsed  since  the  first  publication 
Of  "  Moral  Physiology ;"  and  already  I  am  called  upon  to  pre- 
pare a  fifth  edition.  If  I  am  pleased  (as  what  author  is  not)  to 
see  that  my  labours  are  not  unappreciated  by  the  public,  I  am 
also  reminded  of  the  additional  obligations  I  lie  under,  to  render 
the  little  treatise  as  complete  and  as  free  from  error  and  inac- 
curacy as  possible. 

I  have  therefore  carefully  revised  the  work,  and  made  such 
amendments  as  have  suggested  themselves  during  these  seven 
months.  And  as,  in  the  course  of  that  time,  I  have  received  a 
multitude  of  communications  (some  verbal,  but  chiefly  by  let- 
ter) on  the  subject  in  question,  I  shall  here  add,  in  the  shape  of 
Appendix,  such  extracts  from,  and  comments  on,  a  few  of  these, 
as  seem  to  me  interesting  and  useful. 

I  expected  much  opprobrium  from  the  work  ;  and  have  be'en 
not  a  little  surprised  to  find  my  expectations  most  agreeably 
disappointed.  Never,  in  my  life,  have  I  written  any  thing  that 
so  nearly  united  the  suffrages  of  all  whose  opinion  I  care  for,  or 
which  has  been  suffered  to  spread  more  quietly  by  our  oppo- 
nents. In  this,  these  latter  have  acted  wisely.  '  Had  they  made 
any  fuss  about  it,  it  would  probably  have  been  the  Appendix  to 
the  twentieth,  not  to  the  fifth,  edition  I  should  now  be  writing. 

The  sentiments  of  approval  which  have  reached  me  from  va- 

7 


74 

rious  quarters,  have,  in  the  expressive  language  of  the  Old 
Book,  "  strengthened  my  hands  and  encouraged  my  heart  f 
for,  though  the  world's  opinion  be  worth  little,  there  are  indi- 
viduals in  it  whose  opinion  is  worth  much ;  and  though  a  con- 
sciousness of  rectitude  may  support  a  man  against  all  opinions, 
yet  it  is  pleasant  to  find,  now  and  then,  in  one's  progress,  con- 
current sentiments  from  those  we  esteem. 

I  imagine  that  it  may  afford  similar  encouragement,  in  a  de- 
gree, to  any  of  my  readers  who  may  chance  to  approve  what 
they  read,  if  I  quote  for  them  a  few  of  these  opinions.  And, 
first,  I  select  for  the  purpose  two,  which  come  from  men  both 
known  to  me,  as  to  the  American  public,  only  by  their  writings, 
Could  I  give  the  names  of  the  writers,  these  would  be  sufficient 
to  secure  for  their  opinions  a  weight  which  no  anonymous 
sentiments  can  obtain.  But,  in  the  present  state  of  public  opi- 
nion, I  do  not  feel  myself,  for  obvious  reasons,  at  liberty  to  do 
so.  My  readers  must  therefore  be  content  to  take  my  word 
for  it.  that  both  the  writers  are  gentlemen  who  have  displayed 
in  their  works  talents  of  a  high  order,  and  whose  personal  ac- 
quaintance I  should  consider  it  an  honour  to  make. 

I  extract  from  the  first  letter  the  following : 

"  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  sending  me  your  c  Moral 
Physiology.'  I  have  read  it  with  pleasure  and  instruction.  I 
see  not  why  you  should  anticipate  censure,  from  any  quarter, 
for  its  publication.  It  contains  no  sentiment  or  doctrine  which 
strikes  me  unfavourably,  or  which  any  person  could  wish 
suppressed.  Had  the  same  thoughts  occurred  to  me,  I  should 
have  entertained  them,  and  possibly  published  them,  without 
the  least  suspicion  of  offence  to  delicacy  or  good  morals. 

"  I  fully  concur  with  you,  that  truth  can  do  the  world  no 
harm.  Nor  do  I  doubt  that  he  should  be  deemed  a  benefactor, 
(even  an  exceedingly  great  benefactor,)  who  can  teach  man 
how  to  limit  his  powers  of  reproduction  without  abridging  his 
enjoyments." 

Again,  the  same  correspondent  says  : 

"  The  value  of  the  power  to  limit  offspring,  is,  I  think,  very 
separable  from  any  theory  which  involves  consequences  arising 
from  the  extent  of  population  which  the  earth  can  sustain. 
The  limitation  is  a  matter  which  concerns  the  present  comfort 
of  individuals,  in  their  private  capacity ;  while  the  extent  of 


APPENDIX.  75 

the  earth's  ultimate  fecundity  concerns  only  the  thoughts  of 
speculatists  and  politicians.  I  say  this,  because  I  am  not 
troubled  by  the  spectre  of  Malthus." 

This  appears  to  me  an  enlightened,  and  also  a  very  practical 
view  of  the  subject.  The  political  economy  of  the  question 
ought  ever  to  be  kept  separate  from  its  moral  bearings.  The 
consequences  involved  by  the  former,  are  distant,  and  may  be 
called  theoretical ;  while  those  resulting  from  the  latter,  are 
immediate,  and  of  daily  recurrence  in  practice.  If  there  were 
no  tendency  whatever  in  the  human  race  to  increase  beyond  its 
present  numbers,  the  question  would  still  be  one  of  vital  in- 
terest, and  the  consequences  it  involves  would  still  be  of  sur- 
passing importance  to  man  in  his  social  and  domestic  relations. 
The  more  I  reflect  on  the  subject,  the  more  thoroughly  con- 
vinced I  am,  that  man  can  never  attain  to  any  thing  like  social 
cultivation,  without  a  knowledge  of  the  means  to  limit,  at  pleasure 
and  without  much  sacrifice  of  enjoyment,  his  power  of  reproduc- 
tion. And  I  cannot  but  think  that  all  who  have  seen  much  of 
the  civilized  world,  and  carefully  traced  out  the  various  causes 
of  the  vices  and  miseries  that  pervade  it,  will,  upon  reflection, 
concur  with  me  in  the  opinion. 

The  second  writer  of  whom  I  spoke  (an  eminent  physician 
and  professor)  says : 

"  I  have  received  your  c  Moral  Physiology.'  Your  bold 
ness  and  independence  are  entitled  to  great  respect.  It  is  a 
very  important  question,  and  ought  to  be  brought  forward,  that 
the  public  opinion  concerning  it  may  be  based  on  the  only 
proper  ground,  full  and  free  and  patient  public  discussion. 
Your  method  of  handling  the  subject  I  approve.  Place,  the 
political  economist,  suggests  the  remedy  more  boldly  than  any 
other." 

The  next  communication  from  which  I  shall  copy  is  from 
a  young  man  of  excellent  character,  living  in  a  neighbouring 
state,  and  now  one  of  the  conductors  of  a  popular  periodical. 
After  suggesting  to  me  the  propriety  of  re-publishing  some 
English  works  now  out  of  print,  he  proceeds  -as  follows : 

« ?  February  23,  1831. 

"  Had  I  not  been  addressing  you  upon  another  subject,  I 
should  not  have  ventured  to  obtrude  on  you  my  small  meed  of 


76  APPENDIX. 

approbation,  due  to  your  last  work  ;  but  I  cannot  let  slip  this? 
opportunity  of  endeavouring  to  express  how  much  I  feel  in- 
debted to  you  for  its  publication. 

"  To  know  how  I  am  so  indebted,  it  is  necessary  you  should 
also  know  something  of  my  situation  in  life :  and  when  it  is 
described,  it  is  perhaps  a  description  of  the  situation  of  two 
thirds  of  the  journeymen  mechanics  of  this  country. 

"  I  have  been  married  nearly  three  years,  and  am  the  father 
of  two  children.  Having  nothing  to  depend  upon  but  my  own 
industry,  you  will  readily  acknowledge  that  I  had  reason  to 
look  forward  with  at  least  some  degree  of  disquietude  to  the 
prospect  of  an  increasing  family  and  reduced  wages;  appa- 
rently the  inevitable  lot  of  the  generality  of  working  men. 
Under  these  circumstances,  I  saw  W.  Jackson's  article  in  the 
Delaware  Free  Press ;  but  my  feelings  as  a  freeman  (nominal- 
ly) revolted  at  it,  and  I  must  say  that  I  felt  greatly  pleased  when 
I  found  that  his  system  did  not  meet  your  approbation.  You 
had  spoken  upon  the  subject,  but,  like  the  Nazarene  Reformer, 
you  spoke  in  parables.  '  Every  Woman's  Book'  I  could  not 
see  ;  and,  had  not  Dr.  Gibbons  afforded  me  an  example  of  how 
much  you  might  be  misrepresented,  I  might  have  been  tempted 
to  believe  the  slanders  circulated  regarding  you. 

(C  I  had  apparently  nothing  left  but  to  let  matters  take  their 
own  course,  when  your  '  Moral  Physiology'  made  its  appear- 
ance. 

"  I  read  it ;  and  a  new  scene  of  existence  seemed  to  open  be- 
fore me.  I  found  myself,  in  this  all  important  matter,  a  free 
agent,  and,  in  a  degree,  the  arbiter  of  my  own  destiny.  I  could 
have  said  to  you,  as  Selim  said  to  Hassan, 

1 Thou'st  hewed  a  mountain's  weight  from  off  my  heart.' 

My  visions  of  poverty  and  future  distress  vanished  ;  the  pre- 
sent seemed  gilded  with  new  charms,  and  the  future  appeared 
no  longer  to  be  dreaded.  But  you  can  better  imagine,  than  I 
describe,  the  revolution  of  my  feelings. 

"  I  have  since  endeavoured  to  circulate  the  little  book  as 
widely  as  my  limited  opportunities  permit,  and  shall  continue 
to  do  so,  believing  it  to  be  the  most  useful  work  that  has  made 
its  appearance  since  the  publication  of  Paine's  { Common 
Sense  j'  and  convinced  that3  by  so  doing,  I  shall  render  you  the 


APPENDIX.  77 

most  acceptable  return  in  my  power  to  make  for  the  benefit 
you  have  conferred  upon  me  as  an  individual.  G." 

And  here  I  may  remark,  that,  though  I  expected  my  little 
book,  in  such  individual  cases  as  the  above,  to  be  (as  it  seems 
it  has  been)  the  means  of  diminishing  the  suffering  which  ine- 
quality of  condition  and  the  pressure  of  poverty  bring  upon 
men  and  women,  yet  I  desire  it  to  be  distinctly  understood, 
that  I  have  never  put  it  forward,  and  do  not  now  put  it  for- 
ward, as  a  remedy,  but  only  as  a  palliative,  of  political  evils.* 
Were  all  poor  parents  (an  unlikely  case,  however)  thus  to 
limit  their  offspring,  it  might,  perchance,  but  furnish  excuse 
and  opportunity,  in  the  present  state  of  commercial  competi- 
tion, for  their  employers  to  lower  their  wages :  for  wages,  as 
things  are  now  arranged,  too  often  sink  nearly  to  the  point  of 
subsistence.f  Economy  in  living  is,  like  the  parental  foresight 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  in  itself  an  excellent  thing ;  but  he 
who  expects,  by  the  one  recommendation  or  the  other,  to  cure 
the  ills  of  poverty,  expects  an  effect  from  utterly  inadequate 
causes.  The  root  of  the  evil  lies  far  deeper  than  this  ;  and  its 
remedy  must  be  of  a  more  radical  nature.  This  is  not  the 
place,  however,  to  enter  on  such  a  discussion.  The  great  im- 
portance of  the  work  I  conceive  to  lie  more  in  its  moral  and 
social,  rather  than  in  its  political,  bearings.  It  is  addressed  to 
each  individual,  rather  as  the  member  of  a  family,  than  the 

citizen  of  a  state.  a^^ 

•     .*.    •    ^ 

The  next  extract,  from  an  inhabitant  of  Pennsylvania,  I  have 
selected  chiefly  as  it  furnishes  a  beautiful,  and,  alas  !  a  rare,  ex- 
ample, of  that  parental  conscientiousness  which  scruples  to 
impart  existence  where  it  cannot  also  impart  the  conditions 
necessary  to  render  that  existence  happy.  In  this  view,  the 
control  in  question  is  indeed  all-important.  Were  such  virtue 
as  this  cultivated  in  mankind  generally,  how  soon  might  the 
very  seeds  of  disease  die  out  among  us,  instead  of  bearing,  as 
now,  their  poison-fruit  from  generation  to  generation !  and  how 
far  might  human  beings,  in  succeeding  ages,  surpass  their 
forefathers  in  strength,  in  health,  and  in  beauty! 
i 

*  See  page  31  of  the  work  itself. 

'  t  This,  however,  applies,  at  the  present  time,  rather  to  Great  Britain  than  totnifl; 
country. 

3* 


78  APPENDIX. 

ft  This  view  of  the  subject  is  to  the  physiologist,  to  the  philo- 
sopher, to  every  friend  of  human  improvement,  a  most  interest- 
ing one.  "  So  long,"  to  use  the  words  of  an  eloquent  lecturer, 
now  in  this  city,  "  as  the  tainted  stream  is  unhesitatingly  trans- 
mitted through  the  channel  of  nature,  from  parent  to  offspring, 
so  long  will  the  text  be  verified  which  '  visits  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  on  the  children,  even  to  the  third  and  fourth  genera- 
tion.' "  And  so  long,  I  would  add,  will  mankind  (wise  and 
successful  whenever  there  is  question  of  improving  the  animal 
races)  be  blind  in  perceiving,  and  listless  in  securing,  that  far 
nobler  object,  the  physical,  and  thereby  (in  a  measure)  the 
mental  and  moral  improvement  of  our  own. 

I  may  seem  an  enthusiast— but  so  let  me  seem  then— when 
I  express  my  conviction,  that  there  is  not  greater  physical  dis- 
parity between  the  dullest,  shaggiest  race  of  dwarf  draught 
horses,  and  the  fiery-spirited  and  silken-haired  Arabian,  than 
between  man  degenerate  as  he  is,  and  man  perfected  as  he 
might  be :  and  though  mental  cultivation  in  this  counts  for 
much,  yet  organic  melioration  is  an  influential — is  an  indispen- 
sable accessary. 

Here  is  the  extract  which  led  to  these  remarks : 

" ,  March  23,  1831. 

*  *  *  "  I  use  no  meat,  unless  eggs  may  be  considered  such  ; 
I  drink  neither  tea,  coffee,  nor  any  thing  more  exciting  than 
milk  and  water ;  and,  like  yourself,  I  am  fully  satisfied,  having 
no  craving  after  the  luxuries  of  the  table.  With  regard  to 
£  Moral  Physiology,'  let  the  following  facts  speak : 

"  I  was  born  of  poor  parents,  and  early  left  an  orphan. 
When  of  age,  though  my  circumstances  promised  poorly  for 
the  support  of  a  family,  I  desired  to  marry,  knowing  that  a 
good  wife  would  greatly  add  to  my  happiness.  The  check 
spoken  of  in  your  book  (withdrawal)  presented  itself  to  my 
mind.  And  for  seven  years  that  I  have  now  been  married,  I 
have  continued  to  practise  it.  I  was  successful  in  business, 
and  acquired  the  means  of  maintaining  a  family ;  but  still  I 
have  refrained,  because  my  constitution  is  such  an  one  as  I 
think  a  parent  ought  not  to  transmit  to  his  offspring.  I  prefer 
refraining  from  giving  birth  to  sentient  beings,  unless  I  can 
give  them  those  advantages,  physical  as  well  as  moral  and  in* 
tellectual,  which  are  essential  to  human  happiness. 


APPENDIX.  79 

"  One  tiling  I  have  observed,  that  since  I  have  adopted  a 
simple  diet,  and  laid  by  all  artificial  stimuli,  not  only  is  my 
health  better,  and  my  mind  more  clear,  but  I  can  abstain,  at 
will,  without  injury  or  inconvenience,  from  sexual  connexion 
for  any  length  of  time  ;*  and  this  without  having,  in  the  least, 
lost  any  power  in  that  respect.  T." 

From  the  letter  of  an  aged  French  gentleman,  who  holds  a 
public  office  in  the  western  country,  I  translate  the  following ; 
and  I  would  to  heaven  that  every  young  man  and  woman  in 
these  United  States  could  read  it : 

"  I  have  read  your  little  work  with  much  interest,  and  desire 
that  it  may  have  a  wide  circulation,  and  that  its  recommenda- 
tions may  be  adopted  in  practice.  If  you  publish  a  third  edi- 
tion, I  could  wish  that  you  would  add  a  piece  of  advice  of  the 
greatest  importance,  especially  to  young  married  persons. 
Many  women  are  ignorant,  that,  in  the  gratification  of  the  re- 
productive instinct,  the  exhaustion  to  the  man  is  much  greater 
than  to  the  woman  :  a  fact  most  important  to  be  known,  the 
ignorance  of  which  has  caused  more  than  one  husband  to  for- 
feit his  health,  nay,  his  life.  TISSOT  tells  us,  that  the  loss  by 
an  ounce  of  semen  is  equal  to  that  by  forty  ounces  of  blood  ;f 
and  that,  in  the  case  of  the  healthiest  man,  nature  does  not 
demand  connexion  oftener  than  once  a  month.J 


*  We  applaud,  as  a  marvel,  the  continence  of  Scipio.  Such  continence — and 
amid  circumstances  far  more  trying — is  habitually  found  (under  no  other  re- 
straint than  that  of  public  opinion)  among  the  native  Indians  of  our  continent.  A 
friend  of  mine,  whose  family  was  captured  by  a  party  of  Mohawk  Indians  some 
fifty  years  ago,  informed  me, that  four  young  women  (two  of  them  of  considera- 
ble beauty)  who  were  captured  on  that  occasion,  were  not  once,  during  a  resi- 
dence of  several  years,  addressed,  even  with  the  remotest  degree  of  sexual  im- 
portunity, by  an  Indian,  old  or  young,  though  living  with  them  in  the  same  wig- 
wam. These  young  women  were  the  near  relatives  of  the  friend  who  related 
this  fact  to  me  ;  and  it  was  from  their  own  lips  he  obtained  it.  Yet  these  were 
savages ! 

Such  scrupulous  regard  to  the  feelings  of  others,  would  be  a  matter  of  too  uni- 
versal prevalence  among  us  even  to  cause  remark,  or  call  forth  commendation, 
were  it  not  for  the  artificial  stimuli,  and  as  artificial  restraints,  which  fashion  and 
law  make  common  among  us.  R.  D.  O. 

t  This,  of  course,  must  be  rather  a  matter  of  conjecture  and  approximation, 
than  of  accurate  calculation.  R.  D.  O. 

J  And  I  doubt  whether  she  permits  it,  without  more  or  less  of  injury,  to  the 
average  of  constitutions,  oftener  than  once  a  week.  Certain  I  am,  that  any  young 


80  APPENDIX. 

"  How  many  young  spouses,  loving  their  husbands  tenderly 
and  disinterestedly,  if  they  were  but  informed  of  these  facts, 
would  watch  over  and  preserve  their  partners'  healths,  instead 
of  exciting  them  to  over-indulgence. 

"  I  send  you  a  copy  of  Italian  verses,  appropriate,  like  the 
German  stanza  you  have  quoted  in  your  work,  to  the  above 
remarks : 

1  Merta  gli  allo  ri  al  crine 
Chi  scende  in  eampo  armato, 
Chi  a  cento  squadre  a  lato, 

Impallidir  non  sa : 
Ma  piu  gloria  ha  nel  fronte 
Chi,  alia  ragion  soggetto, 
D'un  sconsigliato  astello 

Trionfator  si  fa.'*  L.  G." 

I  extract  the  following  from  my  journal : 

January  4,  1831. 

A  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  from  the  country, 
called  at  our  office ;  he  informed  me  that  he  had  been  married 
twenty  years,  had  six  children,  and  would  probably  have  had 
twice  as  many,  had  he  not  practised  withdrawal,  which  he 
found,  in  every  instance,  efficacious.  By  this  means  he  made 
an  interval  of  two  or  three  years  between  the  births  of  each  of 
his  children.  Having  at  last  a  family  of  six,  his  wife  earnestly 
desired  to  have  no  more ;  and  on  one  occasion,  when  she 
imagined  that  the  necessary  precautions  had  been  neglected, 
she  shed  tears  at  the  prospect  of  again  becoming  pregnant.  He 

man  who  will  carefully  note  and  compare  his  sensations,  will  become  convinced, 
that  temperance  positively  forbids  such  indulgence,  at  any  rate,  more  than  twice 
a  week ;  and  that  he  trifles  with  his  constitution  who  neglects  the  prohibition. 
How  immeasurably  important  that  parents  should  communicate  to  their  sons,  but 
especially  to  their  daughters,  facts  like  these !  R.  D.  O. 

*  For  the  English  reader,  I  have  attempted  the  following  imitation  of  the  above 
lines  •. 

Crown  his  brows  with  laurel  wreath, 
Who  can  tread  the  field  of  death- 
Tread— with  armed  thousands  near— 
And  know  not  what  it  is  to  fear. 
But  greater  far  his  meed  of  praise, 
Juster  his  claim  to  glory's  bays, 
Who,  true  to  reason's  voice,  to  virtue's  call, 
Conquers  himself,  the  noblest  deed  of  all  i  B,  P.  O. 


APPENDIX.  81 

said  he  knew,  in  his  own  neighbourhood,  several  married  wo- 
men who  were  rendered  miserable  on  account  of  their  con- 
tinued pregnancy,  and  would  have  given  any  thing  in  the  world 
to  escape,  but  knew  not  how. 

This  gentleman  corroborated  the  opinion  I  had  suggested, 
(page  66,)  that  the  habit  of  withdrawal  had  an  influence  simi- 
lar to  that  of  temperance  in  diet.  He  had  found  it,  he  said, 
much  less  exhausting  than  unrestrained  indulgence. 

Another  gentleman,  also  belonging  to  the  Society  of  Friends, 
has  since  confirmed  to  me  (as  a  fact  positively  'proved  to  him 
by  personal  experience)  the  above  opinion.  He  likewise  ex- 
pressed his  conviction,  that  the  habit  was  greatly  conducive 
to  the  preservation  of  those  first,  fresh  feelings,  (so  beautiful, 
and,  alas  !  so  evanescent,)  under  which  the  married  usually 
come  together. 

In  reply  to  a  correspondent,  J.  W.,  who  cites  a  case  of  Pria- 
pism  mentioned  in  a  Medical  Journal  some  eight  or  ten  years 
since,  and  which  pathological  derangement  he  thinks  was  at- 
tributable to  the  habit  of  withdrawal,  I  would  reply,  that  the 
concurrent  testimony  of  all  who  can  speak  from  experience  on 
the  subject,  disproves,  not  of  course  the  fact  he  cites,  but  the 
propriety  of  attributing'  the  effect  produced  to  the  cause  in  ques- 
tion. Priapism,  it  is  well  known,  is  frequently  caused  by 
sexual  excess  ;  and  was  probably  so  caused  in  the  case  alluded 
to.  Such  excess  is  much  less  likely  to  take  place,  when  with- 
drawal is  practised,  than  during  unrestrained  indulgence. 

It  now  remains  for  me  to  notice  an  important  communica- 
tion which  I  recently  received  from  a  medical  gentleman  re- 
siding in  Indiana,  for  whose  talents  and  character  I  entertain 
much  respect.  It  regards  the  physiological  portion  of  the 
work,  which  the  writer,  Dr.  S ,  thinks  is  altogether  inac- 
curate. 

He  refers  me  to  Burns',  Denman's,  and  Dewee's  Midwifery, 
and  especially  to  an  essay  by  Dr.  Caldwell,  of  Transylvania 
University,  on  Generation,  in  proof,  that  all  are  not  agreed  that 
the  semen  must  enter  the  uterus  in  order  to  effect  impregnation. 
He  instances  a  case  published  in  the  New- York  Medical  Re- 
pository, and  another  in  the  Western  Quarterly  Reporter,  in 


83  APPENDIX. 

which  impregnation  was  effected,  though  immediately  previ- 
ous to  the  child's  birth  the  vagina  was  found  only  large  enough 
to  admit  a  common  knitting  needle,  and  the  medical  attendant 
had,  in  consequence,  to  make  an  artificial  passage.  And  he 
argues,  on  the  authority  of  this  and  other  instances  where 
there  existed  such  mechanical  obstruction  in  the  vagina,  os 
tincaB  or  collum  uteri,  as  to  render  the  passage  of  the  seminal 
fluid  next  to  impossible,  that  that  fluid  does  not  enter  the 
uterus  at  all,  and,  consequently,  that  the  doctrine  on  which  the 
whole  work  is  founded,  is  physiologically  false ;  and,  as  being 
false,  is  calculated  to  do  much  and  cruel  mischief.  There  are 
two  chief  theories,  he  says,  now. generally  received  on  the  sub- 
ject, the  absorbent  and  the  sympathetic;  according  to  both  of 
which,  all  that  appears  absolutely  necessary  to  impregnation  is, 
that  the  semen  should  be  deposited  somewhere  in  the  vagina ; 
perhaps,  to  be  taken  up  by  a  set  of  absorbent  vessels,  and  by 
them  conveyed  to  the  ovum,  which  ovum  is,  in  its  turn,  taken 
up  by  the  fimbriated  ends  of  the  Fallopian  tube,  and  thereby 
deposited  in  the  uterus ;  perhaps,  (but  I  confess  this  seems  to 
me  a  very  poetical  theory,)  merely  to  produce  simultaneous 
and  sympathetic  action,  thereby  effecting  the  great  and  secret 
work  of  nature. 

Now,  my  expression  was,  that  "  almost  all  physiologists  are 
agreed,  that  the  entrance  of  the  sperm  itself,  or  of  some  volatile 
particles  proceeding' from  it,  into  the  uterus,  must  precede  con- 
ception."* The  favourers  of  the  absorbent  theory  will  not,  I 
presume,  deny  this  ;  the  few  advocates  of  the  ^sympathetic,  may. 
Nor  am  I  tenacious  as  regards  any  theory  whatever,  on  a  sub- 
ject of  which  the  arcana  still  remain  shrouded  in  comparative 
mystery.  Enough  for  my  purpose,  that  the  condition  indis- 
pensable to  reproduction  is,  (as  Dr.  S himself  reminds  us,) 

the  deposition  of  the  sperm  in  the  vagina.  The  preventive  sug- 
gested in  "  Moral  Physiology,"  positively  precludes  the  fulfil- 


*  In  proof  that  I  have  not  spoken  unadvisedly  on  this  subject,  I  may  quote  what, 
I  believe,  is  now  considered  the  highest  authority: 

"  If  the  most  recent  works  on  Physiology  are  to  be  credited,  the  uterus,  during 
impregnation,  opens  a  little,  draws  in  the  semen  by  inspiration,  and  directs  it  to 
the  ovariumby  means  of  the  Fallopian  tubes,  whose  fimbriated  extremity  closely 
embraces  that  organ." — Magendie,  p.  416,  Philad.  Ed. 

See  also  BiundelVs  and  Brighton's  experiments  on  the  rabbit,  at  Guy's  hospi> 
tal.  See  also  Spallanzani's  experiments. 


APPENDIX,  83 

ihent  of  this  condition  ;  and  it  could  only  have  been,  I  imagine, 
by  confounding  it  with  the  partial  expedient  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  (page  66,)  that  my  medical  friend  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusions to  which  I  have  here  alluded. 

The  only  argument  which  I  conceive  can  be  fairly  urged 
against  it  by  the  physiologist,  is  that  to  which  I  have  adverted 
and  replied :  (last  paragraph  of  page  65.) 

Having  thus  answered  all  the  objections  which  have  hitherto 
reached  me,  I  conceive  it  unnecessary  to  lengthen  this  Appen- 
dix by  farther  quotations  approbatory  of  the  work,  or  corrobo- 
rative of  the  facts  it  details.  Let  "  Moral  Physiology"  abide 
the  ordeal  of  public  examination ;  if  found  wanting,  to  be  cast 
aside  and  forgotten  ;  but  if  deemed  true  and  useful,  to  be  re- 
membered and  approved. 


